Manipulation by Lolly Vieira

my eyes fixate on the bloody mess outside my front door

I pour a bottle of hydrogen peroxide

and that orange cleaner I use to mop the floors

onto the short, brown, ugly carpet

and scrub and scrub and scrub

your stain turns into a red and brown foam

that soaks through my paper towels

as bleach invades my nostrils

all my senses overwhelmed

with this olfactory and visual nightmare

a horror scene

you planned to die on my doorstep

how fucking poetic

like this plastic bag of bloody, bleach-soaked paper towels in my trashcan

and the faint scent of orange

like always, here I am, cleaning up your mess again

the mess you gifted to me

so I can feel guilty

for the fact that you are poison

you filled yourself with a liquid nearly as vile as you

and I promise myself that this will be the last time I clean up after you

I realize that an eternity alone would be paradise compared to one more second of this

traumatize me again

tell me I asked for it

I fucking dare you

there’s nothing left of me to hurt anymore

keep bombarding this empty shell if you please

you may yet be lucky enough to witness its decay

I’m sure that’d put a smile on your face