Pain

Pain, they say,
is a great teacher.
Perhaps, with
decades of joy
and laughter
in between the
spaces - it
might
be.

But, tonight,
pain is a
skilled torturer
adept -
at shrinking this
human flesh into
a sobbing mound
drowning in the
swollen ecstasy
of tears.

Pain, they say,
helps you
know you are
alive - well
then why -
has
it

crushed

me into

nothingness

until
I
no
longer belong

to
life
and
limb.

Pain, my friend
your absence
will be

pleasure.

© Eleanor Clark
26 August, 2015