Poetry Cave – Ragdoll by Kristin Garth

Remove what’s rigid. Rules are bones. Leave veins

to bleed for him alone.  Embalmed alive,

red syrup treat.  Your suffering remains

sticky sweet.  Aftertaste, abuse survived,

a tinge of tragedy at five.  You taste

the way a good girl should — smoked cherry seared,

his pyre pine, heartwood.  Cutaneous

his cruelty, requisite flesh for tears

pretty.  Unbuttoned eyes, black holes to stuff,

your flicker cotton candy snuffed.   Wee ears,

for whispers, lips a crimson thread rebuffs.

Delivered limber in a limousine,

a ragdoll broken, bent, by you, obscene.