How to Cover a Bruise

They teach how to hide

facial bruising with a fancy concealer

and a tender touch.

      First, use the white,

      It covers the purple,

      then use the green

      to fade the black.

   Pat, don’t rub, you don’t want

   to stretch your skin. You don’t want

   wrinkles at your age.

   (Though, I don’t know what’s wrong

   to have wrinkles at any age!)

They taught that food could alleviate

pain. Shovel it in, heap the spoon

with mac and cheese or bread

slathered with butter.

      Don’t talk with your mouth

      full. And, if you stay full

      you’ll never feel hungry.

They forgot to teach how to sit

with hunger, how to allow vacancy

in one’s belly to turn into something else

other than a mere chasm

They forgot to tell that pain

is a symptom of something wrong

instead of something to endure

 

or ignore.

So, have a proper way to suffer –

cry in the shower or in your closet,

close the doors and shout it all out

and don’t come out until the redness

is gone and if it isn’t gone yet, pat

on more foundation, cover that shit!

   Or, you could choose to throw that damned

   foundation away

   and wear your bruise proudly,

   as something you earned

   instead of something to cover and just

   Hell with the rest of the self-obsessed world!