Beseech

Plead.

Anything else would be too savage.

I taught you

or I taught myself to trick you, me.

Please

Please what?

Please who?

Not myself.

Etching

Something's not right

I hear strange noises,

see cavernous shapes creeping round the edges of my curtains

and you betrayed me in my sleep.

Colourful language

bristling behind the black white wall,

I rein myself in because to speak would be to erupt.

Etching - artist proof

Obliteration

What more is there to say?

Etching - Artist proof

Please

don't let me down.

Etching - Artist proof

Are these my hands

looking so grey and lifeless?

You promised

to look after me.

But can I believe you?

I dwell on

possibility.

I wonder why we failed.

What was it that stopped us working?

What inadequacy

should I single out for criticism?

Love

you have become unfamiliar to me.

We have grown unaccustomed to each other.

An unseemly gulf keeps us apart.

My hands are

mottled

and defy the heat of my body.

I will risk

my own bed,

and hope I won't haunt myself.

I might have been away

but you kept me trapped nonetheless.

What

no repercussions for my unbridled words?

Haven't I

got enough bruises?

Drypoint print

I remember

why I left you.

You teased me...

knowing I would fall flat.

The edifice

I have been building around me

is starting to crumble.

Should I let it fall.

My confidence falters

You are making it too hard for me

and I sense failure.