INK STAINS

a horrid tale in four parts

 

part one

 

He eats his chips from a newspaper

The ink stains his greasy fingers

He licks his lips

the ink runs down his throat

filling his bloated gut

 

part two

 

Scratch your name into my skin

The black ink runs into my open veins

 

Black ink

octopus ink

Spreads like a cancer

Spreads like a broken water

Spreads wide

like teeth in a dentist chair

 

they knew it would come

 

part three

 

Tell us a story mummy

Tell us a story to write on our flesh

To weave in our hair

To keep under our pillow

 

Tell us a story

To breath in the night

Tell us a story to keep away the storm 

 

part four

 

He breathed his words into my nostrils

I can still smell his rotten core

 

He breathed his words

and they took hold

like a cancer in my soul

 

His rotten breath like wisps of wind

Like the breath of god that hovers on the water

Warning

 

He spoke into my sleeping seeds

Warning

told them stories of failure

and abandonment

And need

 

"Stay in bed", he said,

"Stay in bed;

stay dead",  he said,

"Stay in bed or catch a cold".

 

Don’t tell tales