Ritual Cleansing

Rapids rush through me I hold the briny ocean Within my salted skin

But you cracked me open

And it escaped as rain Breath shrieks through me A gasp, a sigh, a sob Are ripped from my honest lungs

But I close my storm windows

To bottle the vortex brewing inside

Fire burns through me I run hot with clean anger Blood rushes, sparking To glass over the damage And heal the gashes you rent so wide

Stone grows within me I clutch fistfuls of gravel

In the quarry of my chest So they can crystallize Into something to hold back the tide