Pain – these words
each one excising flesh
severing my nerves
taking my breath
*
fictitious you may be
I hear the victim’s cry
willing you to flee
wrings me dry
*
your type never benign
you stalk the pages
your sinister breathed lines
predator of the world’s stage
***
I am presently editing a crime fiction. The story line is excellent, compelling and you can’t put the novel (“The Man Who Tattooed Women” by Newt Livesay) down. However, an editor like a surgeon has to look at everything. With my knife (pen), I have to examine each word for clarity and placement. I must stare the perpetrator in the face and hear the victim scream in slow motion. I realized that I subconsciously refused to edit several chapters because the graphic content is so arresting. So here I am (past my deadline) looking in the heinous face of a serial killer, feeling the blood drip down the victim’s leg, trying to cover my eyes but I can’t.
I had to take a poetry break to wash the blood from my hands.
An interesting inspiration for the poem.
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There’s a terrific amount of knglewdoe in this article!
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That’s not even 10 miteuns well spent!
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Great insight. Relieved I’m on the same side as you.
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