four in poems

you stripped safety in your need.
waking from frightened sleep
to your thrust and grunt
your weight on my body
over and over and over again.

i stopped sleeping in our bed,
you decried a sign of dying love.
can you love the teeth that rip flesh from bone
and leave behind rampant infection?

our bed became your lair
you the beast i feared
inside of me your venom spread
festering until i could taste it in my sweat
feel it in my veins more real than blood
relive it in every dream

you consumed me with pain
until i was too afraid to sleep
or dream
or speak
or breathe
or love.