My madness writhes along my spine,
a beaming red star pulsing under skin,
scratching at bone like it wanted out
I paced the room,
every heartbeat a hammer swing,
every breath a trembling crack
in the floorboards of my agony
The thing inside me thrashed, not a toe,
but some furious shard of thought
I’d let grow too sharp
In the end, I wasn’t sure
whether I was breaking the hysteria
or the hysteria was breaking me 
only that something snapped
in a place I could no longer ignore
And I think I just broke my toe
















