Exit

It’s time for me to exit
the stage and leave
the animals to shred
their shadows.
It’s time for me to exit
without looking back,
turn off the light,
set the set on fire,
and leave.
It’s time for them
to cry my tears,
to taste the salt
and the soles of feet,
and lick the spit
off of the floor.

I shall burn in their retinas
like the afterimage of a nightmare;
I shall linger
like the caustic aftertaste
of regret.
It shall burn
and I shall smile;
they shall writhe
and I shall smirk
through their moans.

Spill me
onto their gaping flesh
like lemon juice,
bitter and bright.
Scrape me
off of their green skins
like a dead dream.
For I shall fester
wherever they dare to smile;
I shall bite
like a ravenous hunger
they never knew.
And I shall recur
like a hallucination,
like loss,
like life.