Critic (poem)

Poetry

Searching for faults,
Radar for fissures.
Look for yourself,
Shards that you’ve lost.

Steal them back,
Attack the thief.
Shattered ego,
Fragility exposed.

Empathy lacking,
Their mind irrelevant.
Failing expectations,
That never escaped your mind.

But social expectations,
Engender social censure.
Carefully criticize,
The shape of behavior.

Blemish (poem)

Poetry

Mounds mar the landscape,
Needle-prick the ooze.
Squeeze around its edges,
Ugly purged, beauty remains.

Slice a blade,
Across my face.
Skin regrow smooth,
Baby fresh start.

Adolescent insecurity,
Face curtained by hair.
Inner trauma subtly visible,
Roots outgrowing their container.