Growing Pains

I breathed in the sun and time rolled with my shoulders
My elbows were stung raw and mottled like soil
If I watered them, leaves would carve my skin
Rippled body, veins of stem
Maybe then, I’d feel at home.
Maybe then, I’d serve our sin.

Tell me to turn my fingertips lucid
Peel the bark from my skin
Lose those dapple-stained eyes
Shake the seeds from my hair
Match my age with my sighs
Take that hungry memory - leave it hollow and bare.

You’d starve me to an echo
Quell the words on my tongue
If you slipped off my shell
You’d only find a vermillion yearning.
I’m sorry, my throat spills
But there’s no place to dwell.

As I long for the ground I once worshipped, yet still bid farewell.