Inktober/Goretober/OctPoWriMo: October 2nd: Desperation

1–2 minutes

To read

TW for eye/mouth trauma and gore.

I used the Goretober prompt Eye/Mouth Trauma for this!

Would it help you, my love, if I tore out my eyes?
If I pinned them to cotton and sewed them straight through
If I immersed them into a glass jar of hopes
if I turned them to gaze at the past smould’ring smoke
would it help you, my love, if I gave you my sight?

Would it help you, my dear, if I stitched my mouth shut
if I threaded the promises through purpling lips
if I embroidered the words I wanted to say
onto my tongue in the prettiest of ways
would it help you, my dear, if I learned I’d said enough?

Would it help you, my friend, if I tore my heart loose?
If I stripped vein from muscle and buried the truth
If I dissected the atria, vena cava, the flood
If I drowned my flutt’ring impulses in blood
would it help you, my friend, if I said I’d never leave?

Tell me, my only, what it is I should do
to keep this fragile bond from falling apart
I have given you all that I still have to give
so treasure my eyes and my mouth and my heart.

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Ama Ndlovu explores the connections of culture, ecology, and imagination.

Her work combines ancestral knowledge with visions of the planetary future, examining how Black perspectives can transform how we see our world and what lies ahead.