Pernicious

Illustration by Sebastian Higgins

I saw a yellowed picture of you hanging in your parents' house, 

and we were as close as if I was swimming through your limbs, 

spitting up blood as I traveled through you.

Your fingers danced across the softness of my hips and I lay there - 

scarce like you were abundant, 

bound like you were free.

I drank until I could see the blues of a new morning flushed across your skin.

Another clumsy night,

and now you're wading in a pool of me up to your chin.

I screamed at you on the drive home

and I was that bird we saw trapped inside a strip mall, 

the glass doors must have tricked her.

It's too late for you to realize I'm pernicious,

and that your gentle, devoted eyes are now barely above water.

This piece was included in our inaugural print issue, Taboo. To explore this edition of MEUF Magazine,  please visit the issues page.