Barb and Bile

Like bubble gum stretched in a gossamer balloon

Inflated with heat and boiling breath,

Ever so close to bursting asunder,

So feels my tender heart, with burning bile poured in

To embitter a once rather sweet and soft organ

And sowed with barbs of jet that prick and prod

A particularly painful, putrid, poignant part of my past;

Sometimes it seems like death would be infinitely preferable

To this unbearable tightness of being,

So much so that other parts of me leak a little

And bitterness trickles down my cheek

(My heart can't accommodate all this sorrow and ire)

And though the snow usually refreshes with its icy kiss

It can't dilute my pain, or quench my anger;

Rather, the mask of purity it lays upon the pliant earth

Haunts me,

Mocking my own loss of innocence.