Jennifer Patino

#OctPoWriMo Day 9

my mind
is a record
on repeat

our voices lost in this void,
like phantoms, we avoid
all real feeling…

an ocular view
of what pain has taught me

prices paid,
empty pockets
& callused hands

seek to cinch sutures

in every dream
I have
I’m still falling

the monster of the house
grinds its teeth

between the barbs
of a genetic prison
a nervous system twists

darkness
can shine too

Instead of this graveyard of drafts I’m accumulating, I can go and tend to them, nourish the garden of my hard work, and revive them into newness.