I escaped in the woods

Just for a moment to breathe

That’s where I met a woman

She told me it’s time to scream

I didn’t think twice, just opened my mouth

The sound I released sharpened my teeth

I felt my tongue slither and try to spill out

Blood flowed down my face and stained all the leaves

I did not try to stop the scream

It felt good to rip it all out

A hungry creature that needed to eat

A cannibal that never knew doubt

Curved was my back, giving birth to black wings

My face looked a garnet plastered with hair

I frightened the earth and the mud tried to sing

To convince the soil to block me from air

Finally my horrid mouth was held shut

I clenched my teeth tight and heard my jaw crack

Then a fire encircling my feet did erupt

It swallowed the blood stains and climbed on my back

I looked for the woman who set me free

She was gone from before me, so I looked away

To focus on the fire intent on my cleaning

It peeled back my clothes like flesh in decay

I pushed back my hair

A black brambly mess

I was immune to despair

I was an angel of death

And when a young girl came wailing upon me

She who thought she would break me down calmly

I summoned a scream and bled through her ears

“I am you, we are one, I’m all that you fear”

As the woman before, so too did she vanish

Blood dripped down from a new necklace barbed

I felt it pierce in my neck, senses so lavished

Canopy sunlight kissed my skin into scars

My fire danced from fierce freedom

Sensation all I had dreamed of