beer stained breath
was all that was left of her innocence
She
a body destroyed by midnight rituals
cigarette burns in inside her thighs
like notches on a man's belt
ticks on solitary walls
This was how she counted the days
Drug induced oblivion
she stopped feeling on her skin
first
A hollow womb and vacant eyes
told the lies momma
fed her as a child
pretty princess
once tender, now distressed skin
tattooed in aging bruises
stretched loosely over frail bones
she was invisible
salvation never came knocking
on motel room doors and
some souls ain't worth saving
she
thought
salt water tears stopped falling
years ago
can't remember the last time
her crooked toothed smile
danced across her face
she lived in nothingness
a faded memory for family
a rare mention among friends
her name, a moment of stillness
a distraction
back to life as usual
she lost her voice amongst
the screams of her youth
doesn't remember what it sounds like
so she doesn't know how to find it
she speaks in monetary transactions now
stopped looking ten feet before her
nothing existed in the horizon
mind deteriorated
A lay, a fix, a place
to rat her misshapen shape
she
amid the chaos and fragments
remembered one thing
her favorite color
tangerine
