Infidel

You’re magic wrapped in faithlessness

Like the smoke that comes once the match burns down to the pad of the finger and burning nail and torched skin bites at your nose

Like the fetid detritus offered up to a porcelain alter, two fingers clawing wildly at the back of the throat, acid pouring past teeth

Like the wet left behind after sex

The copper penny that sits on the tongue after swallowing blood

You’re fortunes wrapped in the absence of the future

Like the umbilical cord that hangs on, dying, shriveled once the mouth can feed itself

Like rust crawling in cancerous sores across metal in the rain

The bird that flew into the too clean glass, wings broken, feathers bent, eyes rolled back, fog-covered black orbs

You’re fire wrapped in wet

Grass wrapped in weeds

Fruit wrapped in flies

Cars wrapped in accidents

Towers wrapped in suicides

Muscles in spasms

Organs in cancer

Bones in fissures

Skin in infection

Skin in bruises

Skin in scabs

Skin crying plasma and rot

Skin raw, dried, flaking