Small

Ephemeral

Heat flashes

Blinks in and out like fickle stars in the sky

Flames, once frozen, boil to the surface

Crudely honed into sharp teeth

Knives

Needles

In a haystack, they say

I'm clearly insane

To grasp for the faintest shame

Leaking from the object of my hate

Though I try

And fail

To resist shredding my fingers to ribbons

A price I don't know how I pay

But gladly, if it means ripping

The strings from my limbs.

Does it come from hardened time?

My ire

Sleeps fitfully til the barest shift

Transforms my sight

Into a wasteland

And the earth quakes, wild like volatile words

Like the deaf vocal chords

I've learned to despise.

No one ever wins

In this duel, where

The cycle continues

And my heart, though aware of its guilt

Is crippled by bile

Turned gnarled

Into a dead forest

That's been hurt too many times

To learn how to forgive and forget.

-the donkey