Start by pulling him out of the fire and<br />hoping that he will forget the smell.<br />He was supposed to be an angel but they took him<br />from that light and turned him into something hungry,<br />something that forgets what his hands are for when they<br />aren’t shaking.<br />He will lose so much, and you will watch it all happen<br />because you had him first, and you would let the world<br />break its own neck if it means keeping him.<br />Start by wiping the blood off of his chin and<br />pretending to understand.<br />Repeat to yourself<br />“I won’t leave you, I won’t leave you”<br />until you fall asleep and dream of the place<br />where nothing is red.<br />When is a monster not a monster?<br />Oh, when you love it.<br />Oh, when you used to sing it to sleep.<br />Here are your upturned hands.<br />Give them to him and watch how he prays<br />like he is learning his first words.<br />Start by pulling him out of another fire,<br />and putting him back together with the pieces<br />you find on the floor.<br />There is so much to forgive, but you do not<br />know how to forget.<br />When is a monster not a monster?<br />Oh, when you are the reason it has become so mangled.<br />Here is your humble offering,<br />obliterated and broken in the mouth<br />of this abandoned church.<br />He has come back to stop the world<br />from turning itself inside out, and you love him, you do,<br />so you won’t let him.<br />Tell him that you will never know any better.