Splitting Poem by Shalyn Stachmus

Drowning in your gaze, air is not enough.
You'll see.
You'll see a monster breathing hot words from books.
Just brittle, mangled tomes. Like me.

Grinning through her daze, bliss is unknown love.
She'll grieve.
She'll grieve for fiction, bloody hearts upon her sleeve.
Just red lines, just like home. With me.

Surely you don't think monsters can be real.
Deceived.
Deceive truth: Mirror's seething, pleading so you'll look.
Just broken bones, hidden 'neath a glove.

Oh, you silly girl. Sight is not enough.
Believe.
Retrieve your dreams and hide them, underfoot.
Just blackened angles roam your head.

Don't show disgust, but if you must, you may conceal.
Receive.
Between two splitting lobes, I think you will be pleased.
Just look dear, and you'll see everything.