Rotten
Rotten was written in October of 2021 for this project.
The idea behind this poem is that of a toxic, abusive relationship being explored through the metaphor of mold.
The narrator of this poem seems to place the blame on their significant other, though the way that violence creeps into the prose suggests that they aren't wholly reliable.
Themes:
- Relationships
- Abuse
- Toxicity
There’s mold between us.
Sticky.
Virulent.
Stinking like rot,
The grey smell of it
Radiates in the space
Amid our bodies,
Blurring the lines of
Violence and lust
Like it needs our
Anguish to thrive.
The spores have
Blanketed every inch
Of us. Did you
Even notice? The
Sickly pale fuzzing at
The corners of your
Mouth and out the
Angles of your
Eyes?
Seeping into every
Bit of naked flesh,
All it seeks to do is
Feed. And you
Let it. Let it
Sip on the
Tears and sweat
And blood
From your
Palm like a
Newborn calf.
And —
It’s not new.
Far past its infancy,
The growth now is
Months advanced.
In the walls,
On our food,
Knitted into every
Word and glare
And slap.
It’ll flourish everyday.
Sprouting new germs
And sprawling against
Our forms until it
Swallows us
Whole.
Just like you wanted.
That
moldis intended, on the narrator's part, to symbolize the problems of their relationship. That something, whatever it might be, is wrong.
The issues between them grow worse as they harbor more and more animosity. It's a
vicious cycle that feeds off of itself, the
moldonly continues as they suffer.
The
moldmanifests itself in the mouth and eyes, because that's where the roots of their problems tend to lie: hurtful words and cold looks.
Our narrator blames their S/O for this, their failing
relationship, despite obviously harboring a lot of resentment themselves.
They're practically resigned to (what they see) as the
inevitablity of this toxicity overtaking them completely. They become one with the
mold, the pain and hatred.