The Alchemist

By Katherine Meikle

Your venom lingers in my veins

and for now it still hurts, only for now.

But soon it will turn to gold

Kintsugi cutting through my

brilliant skin 

glowing, 

immune.

All my gilded edges 

reflecting in the soft evening light.

the glistening gloss on my lips 

the sway of my hips,

shifting under my satin dress. 

I do confess, 

I’m happy.  

You’re no match for my alchemy.

Turning the pain you gave me into 

something clean,

something mine.

A million miles away from you

It feels so good

not caring what you do.

After such long nights wide eyed and worried 

wondering,

when you’d decide to come home to me.

I’m finally free.

At some point you seemed to make up your mind 

about who you thought I was;

Smart enough to laugh at your 

dumb jokes, 

interesting enough to summarize to your friends, 

with some quaint little hobbies floating around 

in the background 

of your distance.

Cute, but never gorgeous.

Quiet, yet still crude enough to bother you.

And the fleeting few 

times you tried to ‘charm’  me

only exposed how little you knew.

And then… you stopped trying. 

Your curiosity dying

with the last of my patience. 

I am more than you could ever know.

More than you could jot down in your 

mental notes app,

more than your flaccid mind could tap.

And even as I speak

I finally begin to peek 

under the veil you cast upon me.

I am a language you can’t read,

I am an artifact buried deep,

A Rosetta Stone

of flesh and bone,

you 

could never touch me. 

I weave my wisdom into words,

my swan song into songbirds,

my million paper cuts 

a scarlet thread, 

spun into a dazzling coat

of courage and of hope. 

I will wear it everywhere.

All my gilded edges 

reflecting even the lowest light,

the shimmer of my soul

the glistening glass on my eyes

my thighs, 

shifting under my satin dress. 

I must confess, I’m happy.

By Katherine Meikle