The Taste of Rage

Laden with hungry fingers and a thirst
for Jim Beam, you skulk through
murky nightclubs looking for a dimly lit
blonde to awaken in the middle of the night.
You eat up the thrill of drunken sex and 
fuck in hotel rooms paid for in cash,
twisting beneath sheets stained with indiscretion.

You left me on the hottest day of the year,
tiles blistering beneath my feet, the sting
of treachery skirmishing with the taste
of rage that flickered on my tongue.
In a hollow gesture, you bequeathed me a
house full of echoes and a box of matches 
to burn our caustic memories to the ground.

You think you’ve seen the last of me,
but I am waiting on the tip of a ravenous blade,
vapor torn from a slice of reckoning.
I hide beneath shadows, woven from threads
of betrayal that darken the creases in my resolve,
snaking through rib bones to constrict
the frenzied rhythm of my heart.

Like a vine that chokes its prey,
I will creep on the breath of vengeance,
striking when your voice is
plucked out by the teeth of deceit,
tongue steeped in the crinoline of original sin.
As she fills your mouth with desire,
I will be retribution crawling up your back.

Susan Richardson @floweringink lives and writes in Los Angeles.  In addition to poetry, she writes a blog called, Stories from the Edge of Blindness. Her work has been published in Rust + Moth, Amaryllis, Riggwelter, The Writing Disorder, Dodging the Rain, Anti Heroin Chic, Mojave Heart Review, and Toasted Cheese, among others.  She was awarded the Sheila – Na – Gig 2017 Winter Poetry Prize, featured in the Literary Juice Q&A Series, and her poem “Letches” was chosen as the Ink Sweat & Tears March 2018 Poem of the Month. Her poetry has also been nominated for Best of the Net. You can read more of her work on her website.

Image: “icon” by Robert Frede Kenter @frede_kenter