Tell me again what it means That the river ran red With their blood When I picked the shards of glass From my teeth Carved them into my tombstone Embroidered it with the spell I stole Aureate, the passing I’ll bury that damned rock with me Tie it to my back Let it weigh me to the bottom of the ocean I’ll mean more to the earth Than it meant to me Kill me Etch the blade of the knife Endearing That I see Every breath this paper cut The figurine Tell me again what it means That giants drank the river dry And when truth spoke It burned their shoulders to scabs Loosed blood by my fingernails Painted the world in a brilliant gold A tender pink sky floods through the cracks Hues of violet Wash over like a warm medicine Align every broken eye To its heart Kill me Etch the blade of the knife Endearing That I see Every breath this paper cut The figurine Help me, it burns My veins in insurrection That I breathe Means the words are no more than me I am unrepentant Hold the doll over the fire Steady the knife I’ll carve a name for myself And watch it bleed from my back Drain me Melt me to the burning And burn from the endless smoke That I breathe He wrote on the inside of my skin Peel it away, unwind me String me from the trees From the burning sheets benighted Crushed and crystallized In this I had confided Punctured needle through my mouth They’ll keep my sewn indictment Hues of violence streak my eyes Discharge concatenation Cut a hole between my cheekbones They force the abnegation The frayed ends have caught their thread Redact my ordination Strung, wound, and wrapped around They spun this realization So tell me again what it means That they’d instill that apparition These words are a chassis, last stone unturned “How can meaning have a meaning when we all mean nothing” Gilded it with the hope I stole Aureate, the phrasing I’ll bury that damned rock alive Tie it to my back Let it weigh me to the bottom of the ocean Tell me again what it means That I breathe Kill me Etch the blade of the knife Endearing That I see Every breath this paper cut The figurine Help me, it burns My veins in insurrection That I breathe Means the words are no more than me No more than me