When death, reckless and brutal,
carved you from my quiet skin
I hid the grisly remains
beneath a neatly starched uniform.

Slowly, my deranged figure healed
and routine rhythms carried me from you.
I watched your hunch shadow creep away,
got drunk and danced naked in the dark.

In my new life and new clothes
I was beautiful, but my ribs were thin.
So I shoved rocks up my dress
and switched my shade of lipstick.

Last night the ragman came
but I know a wolf when I see one.
Trembling and panting, I ran into the alley
where my shoes were filled with sand.

I took off my blouse and beheld:
that the rocks were gone: my flesh
was warm and pink and full.
You had returned to fill out my body.

Smearing the lipstick from my mouth
I stepped from my skirt into the streetlamp’s light.
Then spread my fat thighs wide

….and was born.