Of All the Violence I Have Known

Lyrics

Of all the violence I have known And I've known the hum Of a hand through the air I've known the tightening of a fist in my hair A forearm weight across the tiny bird hollow of my neck The place where words die I've known the grind of bone against bone A butchers block pelvis Sharp against my own I've known the negative Of a hand Etched upon my thigh In the darkroom of some forgotten instinct A cool acceptance I am breakable You can break me All you have to do is try But of all the violence I have known The longest mark by far Is the slow assassination of the years In which I loved Or tried to at least In the way that I was taught By every pastel posed soap drenched Magazine bought The paper cuts Inviting the leeches to the feast Each tiny pull of the knife Such slow end Etching epidermal patterns of me A bonsai twisted endlessly Cutting through young skin Continuing while the cells knit together again Platelets clown-dancing The great comedy The camouflage Of breaking Ice into one Refreezing its wound Closing up the damage done But all the violence I have known Though I'm whole now I think Silent And wild And tall It lies below the surface Mosquito trapped in amber Still fat with prehistoric blood And ruin It lies below the surface in us all