Purging

* This was an exercise where it was required to use the following phrase as my opening line which I doctored a bit: "My emotions pulled and tore strips from my heart, I placed them down on the hot summer sidewalk of my life and left them to burn."

Purging

My emotions pulled
tore strips from maligned heart;
I placed them on hot summer sidewalks
of life, left them to burn.

I am an onion peeked
a naked soldier on boiled battlefields
where searing scars form
over coagulated flesh.

I withdraw, taste bitter melon
spit shards of steel from pouty lips
my way of coping with
broken promises,
foolish journeys across rivers
overflowing with crocodiles
that hope I lose my balance
the rocks slippery, menacing.

Anxiety compounds complex sentiments –
hurt,  shame, anger, bewilderment -
form funnel clouds, devastate
internal organs which shut down;
they await for my spiritual demise,
prey on hopelessness embedded
in unprotected nucleus vulnerable,
quickly chewed up, spit out.

I am an embryo fighting for sustenance
those first six weeks perilous
a challenge to survive
develop a stealthy life force.

For now, my heart is beating
sizzling in blistering heat
two eggs sunny-side up
a meal for pigeons.