Anger, in Three Parts

Part 1: Irritation

Pulsing veins tick
to the hum
of a quaking 
bomb, clicking 

down 

each 

second

Hairs vibrating
across thin layers
of papery skin,
swatting at invisible
crawling pests

Ears spilling over
the edges 
with a
tuneless throbbing, 
with an 
endless numbing rhythm
that buzzes like
a mocking mosquito

Lungs ballooned 
and heavy with 
vicious words, ready 
to strike
with every
exhalation
and spill 
their victim’s blood

Hold fast!
Beware!
Stand guard!

(Pray, don’t come near.)

It is only a 
matter of
time, of
a straw on a 
camel’s back, of
being in 
the wrong 
place, of
a flicker of 
the eye

Before

I 

ignite

the 

FLAME

Part 2: Rage

In the beginning…

I AM: 

angry coils of

Fear, Uncertainty, Guilt

that wrap 
around my ribs 
like
angry snakes 

Afterwards…

I WANT:

to pluck an eye
or wrench a tooth; 
to strangle the lie
out of the truth

But in the end…

I MUST: 

build a fire
and quench 
this thirst; 
pile a mire
and watch it 

BURST!

and m e l t
and s t e a m
and b l a z e

into piles 
of ash

with no 
desire
to ever 

look 

back

Part 3: Disgust

The smell of It; 
the acrid bile
of It’s breath
has me feverishly

itchingitchingitchingitching

It’s very presence
has my skin crawling, 
writhing in protest 
and has me obsessively

scratchingscratchingscratchingscratching

It is a putrid sludge
that slides down 
my skin, like 
sticky, hot brown
molasses
that has me helplessly

gagginggagginggagginggagging

It spools around 
my stomach and 
washes acid 
through my guts
that has me painfully

bloatingbloatingbloatingbloating

It envelops me 
It coils It’s sinewy, 
lustful arms around
my trembling figure
that has me unendingly

thinkingthinkingthinkingthinking…

about all my calloused fears
about all my spiny bristles

itchingscratchinggaggingbloatingthinking

about every hand that smacked my cheeks raw
about every ear that turned deaf to my cries

itchingscratchinggaggingbloatingthinking

Until It becomes I 
and I become It
and there are no 
boundaries between
what It has done to me
and what I will do to

everyone else

Eventually.

itchingscratchinggaggingbloatingthinking…

itchingscratchinggaggingbloatingthinking…

itchingscratchinggaggingbloatingthinking…

itchingscratchinggaggingbloatingthinking…