Liquid pools beneath my skull

Clear to the touch

With a taste of blood

Am I awake?

I’ve been baptized and revived

They tell me I am born again

That my old life had to die.

But I am alive

Just gutted

My voice drowned in the desert sea

My skin wrung out in the sun to dry

Or die

But no more salty tears for me

Can’t you see?

I’m perfect now

Everything you wanted me to be

An empty shell

Prepared to let you forget

What you can’t understand

That every pearl you covet so

Came from a grain of sand.

 

But instead you disturb the surface of the water

To make me a mirror

Of all you think you are

And you succeed

Because I want to break free

But I am nothing

If you’re not smiling into me.

Are you satisfied?

The waves have done their job

And every pore of me is pure

My once sweaty palms are clean

I will never want what I shouldn’t want ever again

I will never dream another improper dream

Never have another disrespectful word to say

Are you happy now?

You’ve washed my soul away.