Strands of Neon Light by Alex Pauley

CW: Suicide, Violence

strands of neon yellow

arterial

spray

red

pressedbetweenpages

hair dye-stained words

they were more than

trophies

used to be names

something broken open

covered the V in my neck

dripped across

and below

my collarbone

the oily thickness

married with my joints

brilliant and red

caved in from the center

of the fantasies

blissful

torrid

eternal

I took the horrors

like stakes through my palms

I gave you my rib

like in the beginning

pitted bones

bleached in the sun

sharpened to points

slip through the skin

hollow, marrow roads

subclavian tunnel

and the color was gone

from your face

and skin

all

over

the

table

I carve you from clay

spit-blood canvas

splintered visions of violence reduced to atoms

pulverized into carpet

fingerprint on your thigh

touch DNA

a climax at knife point

collapse on the rug

designs monolithic

pyramid stains

blood drains through grey sandstone

pooling beneath

this twisted cityscape

and the soles of my feet

---

Alex Pauley is a writer from Springfield Missouri, studied creative writing at Missouri State.