The Squeeze © Malkia Charlee

He’d left his signature on my arm
A keepsake of his passion
A keepsake of his love
Brown fingers dark stretched
A marriage proposal then,
this quite circular bruise
He’d left his imprint of his madness
A keepsake of his hate
A keepsake of his ascendancy
Beneath the skin
lying like sticks between the muscles

“Sleeping in Tears” by Jennalee Auclair

with dollops of baby blood

I escaped through a sliver
left open through thought,
no, not vision
…That unwanted disruption
marked by no sufficient shift in sea
Just my pathetic reflection
what made of my shadow
in this cloud of denial… confusion…

A stamp asserting the end
To feelings left unstitched
Awakening only thru this lingering,
this resolute haunting…

And most frightening… a yearning
for the ghosts of squeezing insanity

…the haints of romance

About

Malkia Charlee is a Portugal and UK-based novelist from Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the co-editor and founder of Femficātiō Publishing. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander and African Writer Magazine. Her upcoming novel, The Lion and the Wolf, is set for release in 2026. You can pre-order now from Femficātiō.

Originally published in Femficātiō on January 21st, 2012