Tinder

 They are summoning me through the non stop tremors and lackluster melodies 

I wish to sit on the throne that I have built for myself 

I form stone by combining the powder of monuments past with my tears 

I throw it on the skeletons in my closet and watch it harden like my heart

i pull myself to the top and take the crown fashioned from the knives in my back and place it on my head

“Call me Goddess,” I practice the words in the mirror hoping no one sees that I am merely a puppet of my own insecurities. 

A different hand pulling the strings of my existence in every moment of the day

“Goddess!,” they call out to me in multitudes. “Give us your flesh!”

I remove a dagger from the crown that sits atop my head and peel my skin from my body.

“Take it, my flesh does not belong to me.” 

My mind refills with imagery the hauntings of guardians

My flesh was stolen before it reached its final stretch

If you look closely I exist in spite of this rental flesh

Yes, I look like me but the tag that hangs from my neck flows gracefully down my back.

If you get close enough to read it you will find no poetry there, just names and initials of everyman that i belonged to before i could ever belong to myself.

Take my flesh, i have never known her 

I have never loved her

i have tried to renovate and decorate, but she could never truly be mine.

I cast the cloak of my skin to the ravenous men below and watch as they first fight for a piece of it.

Something they can write their name on and then forget.

I sit on my throne, muscles exposed, as the crown digs deeper into my skull.

Maybe if i stay here and serve the remaining layers of myself to the world

Someone will come seeking my soul

Someone will climb the remnants of this tower and gather all that remains

Someone will want the only part of me that hands have not touched even though scars exist.

Many centuries have past and the dehydrated pieces of my heart blow in the wind where my feet used to rest.

The crown of daggers sits on the stone throne and to passers by that come seeking a Goddess they see nothing there.

Though to those who seek me, full name, they may find a small glowing orb.

Her light dim, but there.

We wait for someone to gather us in dedicated hands to take us away from this place

Plant us in rich soil and give us love.

We want to grow into something beautiful.

So we wait......