Remembered
embodied
a bloodied
speck
inked
on
my finger
Marked by birth
needle-pricked
a sore-red eye
Focus on you
means absence
of my
Root-pierced sleep
aloof, embedded in
always-already-penultimate night
Onyx-tinted
jaded
emptied sky
My body-works
α cypher
— dye
Shaded gaze
sloughed off
new skin unveils
a coward’s smile.