once adorned

I’m star-struck that you’ve seen 

how far I have stumbled 

in such a short amount 

of subtle time. 

I have shed myself 

of the skin that I 

once adorned with 

ample care and admiration– 

It lies in a heap, 

abandoned on the floor, 

mingled with the apparel 

now alive with bugs– 

I can’t summon 

the strength to 

put it all away. 

It all feels the same, 

yet so different– 

my face is still 

the same– supple 

and sunken like 

a piece of fruit 

set out to simmer 

in the summer sun. 

The bugs have been found,  

feasting and fizzing on  

the fragments and flecks of  

myself left to fester  

in the faint and feeble world—  

They pick me apart like vultures,  

unforgiving and formidable.

I’m star-struck that you’ve seen 

how far I have stumbled 

in such a short amount 

of subtle time.