Somehow grey emptiness consumes me tonight
Like the cigarette smoke in my lungs
Coating me inside to
The yellow smell on my fingertips
Last time I was ate up
By cool wind that carried mist from the north
I drew paragraphs of lines,
My coffee-cream summer skin
Broken up with red like my hibiscus tea.
I watched it seep up with force.
I expelled demons I left unnamed
Refusing to give them proper housing.
But they have returned, trying to claim what I never had
They cling like peasants to bread
Roasting my soul in their brick oven
Burning the edges and melting me at the core.
Natalia Braginski 