I am back with scars to show.

Press two fingers to my neck, show me a pulse

Tell me my signs are vital

I'm over this,

but the black circles under my eyes betray me.

Crack my ribs and I'll crack a smile (I promise),

fix what's broken, cut away the dead, amputate the sick, the sad, my mind.

This gangrene is spreading faster than you will ever know.

And it's all you, you're the goosebumps on my flesh, the shivers that rack my body in the night. You're the hair that comes out by handfuls in the shower, you're the lingering chill in my room, in my bed that used to know your warmth. You break my bones, you sleep in my marrow.

I lean my head against the rattling glass window of the west-bound bus, my teeth shiver in their gums. Sometimes if I hold my breath, I can hear the gangrene consuming, destroying me.

This I know, my heart will be the last to go.