YOU THINK IT’S LOVE, BUT IT’S CANNIBALISM

a poem from The Cannibal’s Cookbook

A part of you believes
comme ci comme ça
applies to
you.

It begins kind of
noticeable and kind of
painless like when you peel
the skin away from a sunburn.
It’s nourishing

swallowing slivers of your cheek
to give back to yourself
in the so-so times after
your anxiety breaks.

Eating yourself
is too literal to
think as love
but it’s only
food from
you to
you.