Princess

For you, I soften these bones Let them be malleable, mould themselves around your fragile form

I make myself pliable, so that I will bend without breaking I tell you I do not believe you when you say you will never hurt me That is not a promise you can make You can only minimise the injury

My bones cannot shatter under your weight if they have adapted themselves to bear your burdens

One of us has to leave eventually Whether by choice or necessity Walking out the door alone or led by a hand shrouded in darkness, one of us is going first

I am scared I have tempered my jagged edges Become too soft to protect myself without your body as my shield My skeleton deformed and nonsensical Without your body to make sense of it

I think I was trapped, for a long time A sacrifice at the altar of the gods, strapped down and immobilised, unwilling

I can’t remember what the sacrifice was meant to be for, now It doesn’t matter anyway It didn’t work.

The gods won’t touch tainted meat, don’t bargain in souls without a home

So I was simply kept restrained No escape. No absolution. Not even the simple mercy of being wronged and being angry.

Just the monotony of a captivity I did not earn and the knowledge that my body was not even worthy of sacrifice That I was not even worth an apology

it’s okay to drift into other safer worlds. mental multiverses where

work doesn’t bruise so much

and maybe you wake to

gentler mornings, softer dreams.