bone-deep (after the scarring)

bone-deep (after the scarring)

three psychiatrists, sixteen surgeons, and eighty-two operations

but they all agreed this was the only way

to erase her from the skeleton of him

surgery after surgery

this scraping away

of her from his bones

weeks turned into months

and months to years

erasing and healing

and in the end he found himself

disrobing and walking around

the apartment he filled with mirrors

watching the stitches crisscrossing

and conjuring this new him

absent her once tattooed in bone

then they all had to agree despite it all

there she remained

these hieroglyphs scarring his skin