Fall blackened me,

tucking my first scandal beneath my sleeve-

I can still feel it crawling up and down my arm,

burrowing in the space between

my skin and bones

and calling it home.

Winter hardened me,

callousing my palms,

crystallizing my compassions.

Sent my judgments scampering forth

like fire-bellied dragons.

Into the night they unspooled infernal exhales

and returned with a singed squalor

limply drooping from their jaws.

Spring tore it out of me,

ripping my skin

and reaching in

deep-

a procedure I won't forget-

my most painful permutation yet.

And now these pains have passed

because

my lesions learned to heal fast.

But I am not what I once was.