Jarboe

Scorpion

Jarboe


Saltwater is dripping from the disintegrating curtain
It stains and seeps through hollow walls
Which collapse to reveal both the stranger and the lover
It’s said you are not your emotions
But the very placement in my brain and belly
Revolves around our interaction
And the hardest thing is resisting definition

Around this reaction to temperament
Meanwhile barely holding on
What was I thinking to come to this
After all who but I gave you the right
For no one else can save or protect me now
I deserve everything I get

This is my reward for my neo-idealism
The naiveté that I wear
Like a dress you peel off and drop on the floor
A prisoner
I am my own jailer who locked herself in
I lay open my innocence
My dependence

Like a little child who takes her father’s hand
Foolishly I reached out
Like a little child who takes her father’s hand
I reached out and you stung me

The price for intimacy and vulnerability
Is the ability to inflict and receive pain
So you have warned me now to pull back
I rub my eyes with silk threads
While knowing full well that venom is addictive