What's in a Name? - Free Form/Vignette 9.7.23.

Claim my burden but never

offer your shoulder.

To confide, to cry,

you have no tears to spare.

Trying to eat the slice of pie

I spent hours-

You spent seconds.

Those peaches were freshly picked!

Bathed in bicarb, I scrubbed the dirt

until it was nothing but

another piece of myself

for you to snatch.

I do not swallow sweetness, I

choke on copper,

throat bursting to the brim

with pennies,

the same pennies you offer

in penance for the burden of lead that

nooses my neck, you wear it by choice;

by Gold, by Glory,

believing our blood is the same drop split in two.

It is yours for the taking

-evidently so-

You will be tasked with breaking each frozen finger,

forced to pry your prize from

my fucking bruised palms.