through tartarus

INT: THROUGH CAR DOOR - HADESTOWN TOWN SQUARE - DAY

i wish my shoulders wouldn’t 
shake 
with the burden 
to carry it all, 
the winding, monstrous 
life 
of something /

yet to even  
breathe 
it constricts, 
choking, 
around my lungs and
i reach to gulp for the
air /

the hot seed of summer
melting
the horizon, it is
in the sky, in the sea,
it is under your
Skin, and in your
blood /

the curses of childhood
that haunt, stalk,
me
through the warmest of
nights, because 
you don't 
see /

the burn scars on my arm
and the grief
of growing pains —
mother and child —
estranged due to
fire to fuel
the Flame

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