Excoriate
Do not throw anger
back at your other
unless you are ready
to stoke their ire –
redoubled surelye
by your avoiding eye?
Do not find focus
by pin-pricked pain –
held in narrow
concentrations –
unbroken – then set
to scorch again
Your steady point
of magnified aims –
that glass you do not
use to explain –
instead is held
to summon a flame
Do not mark your other’s
yet burnt skin
with borrowed light –
such scarring
will not fade
with time’s passing
Let us idle by pints
and half-cubed shorts
to steady our nerves –
to refine our remarks
and look without trying
to see less censed lies