there is a monster that lives in my bones

it has sharp claws, deep roots,

black-hearted and empty-stomached

it sucks at my marrow slowly slowly

its roots are not contained: they spread

from blood to bone to muscle, infecting

infesting every part of my body

its claws grasp my heart carefully carefully

the sharp talons puncture and blood spills

but the blood is not hot-red life river-flow

blood oozes, slips muddily from veins

wrapped in ruddy-wrong roots tightly tightly

its roots wrap round my arms and

its savagery wraps round my mind

it laughs and i laugh and our claws grasp at

our heart only so tenderly tenderly

wrong blood, wrong mind, wrong heart all

rotting and shrivelling as the roots

deep roots strong roots eat me

slurps up our life greedily greedily