The body is a spell

You are breakable in flesh
Not in spirit
Only transmutable
Into something else

I believed you
were pure
(And still are)
And because your hands
were steady enough
to hold both my fear
and my hunger

You believed me
And I let us down

(I day dreamed of
Our knees bruised on stone
our names carved into
the wooden table
our marks on the sand)

you swore you'd follow me
even if i turned into
a storm of black bees
i swore i'd love you
even when the fire took
all but your shadow
(I lied.)

They said
its only growing pains
but i knew better
it was the blood of
every witch
who burned
before me
boiling through
my veins.

You said:
"love is a curse
that only works
if you bleed for it."
so i bled
and the earth
opened her mouth
to drink me down.

It was an execution
Wishing for resurrection

without forgiveness

my skin drifted off
in the river
and the river carried it
to the sea
what returned from the water
was crowned in salt

What came back
Was a warning.

My bones
stitched themselves
from splintered driftwood
my heart
a candle guttering
black wax into the tide

You called my name
but the sea kept it
rolled it over its tongue
until it dissolved
into a sound no one
could ever pray to

this is how
i learned
some magic
isn't about healing
it's about making the wound holy