FREED VERSE

there's no cancer in my chart. 
yet, here's me: 
   the selfish shellfish that just won’t crack.
strong, stubborn, standing tall: no swing could make a dent.
   that is, until the gauntlet gets broken
   and hits like an AK mounted on a ceiling fan.

no kickback. but everywhere, instantly. 
temporality! what a bitch!

now the shell’s broken, 
and i start to bleed—
raw.
loser, abuser, half-wit fraud.

can you taste the rusted blood
pouring from my shattered shins?
get knotted in my bursting veins 
and know what it’s like to go blind to it all?

my mind in the gutter, 
my head in the clouds.
but i haven’t touched the devil’s flower,
i just haven’t bloomed.