Shaping a Person
Erika Bales

It's art
Cutting a trail through the land of a throat
My steel finger traces a path
Filled with a thick living river
Steaming

It's beautiful
I shape the skin the way it ought to lie
Where it once was plain it slips
Patterned, stained and molding its form to the ground
A collapsed fortress
The body, a hill, sprawled across concrete

Peace takes over Pain
Once again
I smile
There is one less disruption
In this crazy world
I will tame it
One slice at a time