Bewildering Circumstances

Creatures Of Remorse

She twisted as she withered, driven back by brightness;
Blackened and burnt, aching for mercy she crawled,
Writhing and slick, membranes thickening.
In sympathetic shadow-arms
She licked her wounds with forked tongues.
Bitter-sharp, sin-shaped, she brooded,
Another woman’s guilty secret.
Baring blunted teeth to blind shadows
She hissed her dread through pursed, black lips,
Jaws cracking, glistening between the splits.
Remorse is fleeting, a momentary throb
Scars sloughed like so much dead skin
Acid to ashes, denial to dust;
With hands never shaped for holding
She embraced her despair and shed her shame.