Dancer

She is a dancer.

Her limbs are stretched tight,

sallow under false sunlight

that beats into flesh and bone

under weak kneed innocence.

She is a dancer.

She is a fighter.

Her skin is pale and purpled.

Fingerprints tattooed into her wrists

and painted onto her biceps.

Her eyes are sunken and shaded.

She is a fighter.

She is a friend.

Her lips are quirked in a permanent

tight lipped watery smile

hidden deep within eyes

like faded polluted waters.

She is a friend.

She is a sister.

Her eyelids are purple veined

translucent under the fake sun

but he kisses salt from her skin

and feels himself forming words.

She is a sister.

She is afraid.

She is tense in her soul.

Her sunken heart is coloured

the dark blue of fear.

Her fingers tremble butterfly weak.

She is afraid.