"eradicated"

You wish you could rip that mask

off of your face

but it is glued

with an adhesive stronger

than the magnets within;

you have lost yourself

and you have lost the ones

who remembered the one

who is now gone-

they were eradicated from the world

and this

is you now.

You wanted so badly to exterminate

the imperfect

but now you miss the child within,

the fractured ribs and the crumpled heart,

you miss the lack of performance

and the flaws that you despised

because you pull and push

and try

to rub the salt out of the wound

but you still put the pomegranate juice on your lips

and you still take the pills

that were supposed to make you

one of them

and you still suppress the tears

until the sun sets

and by that time you are too exhausted

to do anything

but fade away again.