cannibals will eat more flesh

in a time like rain and eras when
i washed your face, erred your body,
mistakenly, with unadored wounds
flung accidentally from this
inebriated mouth— my madness
dismissed as nothing more than
insecurity unhinged to scorn you
to a distance…. have i succeeded
at inching you along, have i pushed
you out to the ends of the world,
goaded you to erase me from memory?
cannibals will eat more flesh, i’m sure,
and guilt shall always consume me

realms of fire

many survive the
realms of fire—
the heat festers
and creeps into the skin;
what boils above
melts it under
until flesh drips off
the bone like frost
from a diseased
iceberg

©mrg 12/28/14