Just when I thought it was bleak,

the Sun showed me different.

A twist in the plan

Something to revel in

and it never saw it coming

How does one handle it all?

when people are tearing at your teeth

and making wounds in your flesh.

There are other things to be happy about,

they tell me.

Ignore the terrors, the troublemakers, the doubters,

they don’t know you.

But they are there – picking, poking, grabbing,

pieces of me fall away.

This is for my own good?

I think not as I meet their eyes.

They disappear, dropping their swords,

and telling me I’ll regret it later.

But I regret it now, their occupancy.

And no more will they follow me.

Banishment, I feast on your nourishment.

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Apprentice Editor: Sue Adair/Editor: Jenna Penielle Lyons

Photo: Courtesy of the author