i’ve been watching pimple-popping and
cyst-lancing videos on the internet
lately, watching the pus leave
the wound the way the holy spirit leaves
the body, in the form of liquid snakes,
wet ribbons of some old hidden sin.

i am trying to purge the same way,
pushing down and together, hoping
you seep out in the satisfying way
an infection spurts out of the body,
a fountain of rot finally expelling poison
from the center of the earth.

and then, sometimes, there’s blood.
that’s when you know you’re nearing the end
of the video. that’s when the doctor presses hardest,
just need to get the last of it out,
when i press hardest,
you are the ache on my back when it brushes against air,
never stopping to wipe the runoff from the skin, just
pushing, pushing.