and you can press on the bruises

Tessa Morello

in the morning, small inanimate
animal
pillow’s guilty gift, you’ll be
gone — gore can be
imagined, elastic. & scraping my skin to
catalogue every touched, testing
sepulcher intact. thick in the
alone, a father’s
hairline lightning maybe picks
the stitches, i’m asking 
every time in the black
for absolute enough to hate
you — any absence
turns out to be the most 
deserving of punishment so
contrition, not forgiveness like shoving
down the stairs, this knowledge a
permanent head wound.
after how quickly ophelia
on your hands. & the livid stripped,
peeling off — into lilies,
lavender. beat
the dead begs to be beaten, my muscle’s
cadaveric spasming insane
at the flat-palmed & stinging
stigmata, revolver
recollections — tumbling toward ultimate
collapse. you feel very bad, really
terrible about 
everything. your static oblivious, there’s
already a mouse taken to
mouth so drop it off at my door — or
offer up delirious distraction, this little
horse repeated whose legs are 
bound, gets held, makes
everything good. when its dark, small things
cling together, awarely
& are small. 
the best part — self-inflicted,
solitude’s thumbing slightest throat’s
sliver & my wrists’ new
rough — moderation meaning
closest to dying
place where coagulate
raspberry streaked, & red
scattering its face against
exhibition glass. thank you
seriously, thank
you — whose lucky
stones, whose crescent moons, who
spawning cavities into flesh &
sifting, who pressed on
forensic foreshadowing for yellow’s
admiring aftermath, who is absent
again — so sever vestigial, that
tendinous attachment. independently,
i can clutch my own
neck, & arc flash at the backs of my
eyes, an old heavy shoring
up — give me something to
remember, if you’re going to do it
give something
you are willing to let
belong to me.

Tessa Morello is a writer and English literature and creative writing student at Miami University. Her poetry will appear in the third issue of Scavengers. You can find more of her work in snippets formatted over images of television characters on her Instagram page: @catgirlhannibal.