black as the midnight sky, belly bright as the morning star, i
ruptured through the darkness of my cocoon, slithered away
from the shells abandoned under a rock’s shadow. i burrowed
stumbled and clambered under Earth’s naked skin.
i didn’t need to know a scroll to find i have been man’s
enemy ever since the beginning. a worm dwelling inside a rotten
apple was chopped by a hoe among reeds in a garden; body torn
between weakness and wickedness. gravity had chained my limbs to
the ground, so i could only see across the chasm. i often wondered how Mother’s
milk tasted. often i’ve cried, but realised tears cannot quench
my thirst; my lips only know wine. now death has become
a friend who motivates my movements. beneath the moonlight’s glint
i crawl on and on and on my belly, coil under shrubbery along fences
and bare my fangs next to their ankles. their gapes peel my skin down
to a seed of fear; a reflection of my enemy. my inner me
shed like a blanket torn from a cold body and drowned inside
vices. each day i crossed my heart and prayed
to die and become a shadow of myself no more.