Calloused

Can you feel it
Brushing through your hair
As the world stares
Are you even aware?

Can you touch it
Set it aflame?
No? Coward
What’s in a name?

Can you smell it
Adrift in the midnight air
Putrid
Like your Sunday prayer?

Can you taste him?
I thought so
A sack of bones you’d be
If the bitterness, you dared forego

Can you heal them?
Calloused as my feet
Calloused as the eyes they seek
Calloused as the moon they greet

Can you hear her
No?
Today’s groan
Is yesterday’s moan

It is far too much
For her to bear alone
You, too, may wish to atone

Now
Can
You  
Hear
Her?

Photo and effects by Alina de Albergaria
Milan, Italy, 2018
© pennedbyalina 2021