Talisman IV of VIII
Envy
That’s when
you started
looking at me.
After all that wanting,
all that taking,
all that begging
for more,
you found
something in me
you did not hate
for being broken.
I still had
a face
that looked like mine.
A voice
that did not shake.
A little light
you could not swallow.
And you wanted
that too.
Not because
you loved me.
Because you could not bear
to see
anything in me
survive you.
You studied
the places
I had not ruined.
Touched them
like a threat.
Smiled
like a blade.
You kept asking
what made me different.
What made me whole.
What gave me
the right
to keep
what you had lost.
But I was never
what you wanted.
I was only
something you could break
so you would not
have to look
at yourself.
And when even that
did not fix you,
something in you
went still.
Not healed.
Not sorry.
Just empty.
From Seven Ways to Be Damned
by Z.C. Mayson