With Back Against the Roses
Charles Adams
You are of a different blood
While I despise my flesh and skin
and mock the tomb you’ve shut me in
You lounge in a prideful puddle
tilting back your vicious grin
the way you sit i hate
even more i hate
Your screaming lies
tell me again you’re going to do it
i’ll mutter once you fucking wouldn’t
You are of a different blood
I never tilt my words to anger
never step outside my languor
it’s a cowardice you laugh at
and continue to ignore that you’re
what feeds my sense of danger
we shit-talk you below the deck
mom cries and smokes a cigarette
“he acts like such an asshole”
and that’s all we say
on the promises of harm you’ve made
You are of a different blood
Though I think about you dying
how you’d be all done lying
You have the violence in your eyes
to make me learn to give up trying
to survive
when you took your crossbow
aimed it at an empty beercan
i caught your finger on the rail
and let the fletching catch it also
so you’d visit the er
and i could wipe the red with paper towel
You are of a different blood
While I sleep in bed
and dream of death ahead
You sprawl upon the couch
so you can spit and
wish your waker dead
i hate that you’re alive
for the codependent stasis
of today made worthless
of my tomorrow nonexistent
from threats you meant tonight
You are of a different blood
You have empty in your eyes
and purpose in your lies
You know that I’m afraid
that I see you hunched above me
counting breaths until I die
and stop choking
on different blood