Magic with Skin On

by Morgan Nikola-Wren

Practicing suffering like a sacred ritual.

Even now, she cannot stop searching for a way out of her skin and into a life that fits all her fire.

something in the dark of me is begging to throw open its windows

so bring me all your grief-spattered mistakes the ones that trail blood and curses on everyone's carpets

i wish all pain left poetry in its wake this one just steals the light of me turning corners of me i never knew i had heavy and dark

do not call her fragile simply because she is in pieces you'll never know what it took to break her