Toxins

You left long ago

Yet your words still linger

Like a gaping wound

That never heals

Will I ever learn

To expunge the toxins in my veins

That you erected in my heart?

My blood is tainted

With your vitriolic opinions

With words 

I would’ve never used to describe myself—before I met you

My life was a darkling plain

You became a beacon

Radiating hatred

For everything I liked about myself

One day

I will expunge your toxins

I will learn to adore everything you despised about me

One day

The gaping wound will heal

And I will love again.

-Lucy