i exist [as the definition of nonexistence]

litany of self destruction

Heartbreak is the deep pink of scratches down an arm that don't quite break the skin. Anger is lips bitten bloody in an attempt to stay calm, Loneliness is a blue-yellow bruise blossoming from bumping into strangers that once were friends.

Existence, in itself, is the damage done to the human anatomy. The cracked ribcage under hesitant fingers is the remnants of failure, the loss of hearing a reminder that you never listened, the tongue cut out a way of saying you talked too much.

Regret comes out in cigarette burns. Loss is teeth lost in a fist fight. Fear is the crushed bones of your right hand and yes--

This is a love poem written as the philosophical pains of the human body, but this is also a litany of the ways a person can stand on the brink of death without dying. And when a person does die they are a road map of mutilation. The hollow autopsy of who they once were and only the bruised corpse of who they could have been.