i, ms. melissa
i am:
✓ mentally at an impasse
✓ emotionally ill,
✓ morally lame,
✓ not “normal”
some say: “insane,” “in peril,” “in pain”
i say:
“sometimes no, sometimes yes.”
lately, pain ensnares me
intorts me
emptiness erases me
me: an imposter, an interloper
an alien
my only mistress: misery
misery’s metal talons mar me
“spare me!” i implore
as torn arms spatter tiles
stains: temporary, stripes: eternal
respite.
you see me?
me: a mortal monster
(as most monsters are)
lean in.
i see you.
i lament my loneliness
as i sit in stormy silence
terminally inert, i rot
time melts, aeons pass
i operate aimlessly
me: a lone planet
a temporal prisoner on parole
poetry sates me
momentarily stills me
me: melissa
no more,
no less.