N D Allison

Erasure  

A bruise soon forgets its fist—
the pick’s cry, swallowed whole.
Absence tunnels through the quiet,
humming a melody half-remembered.

Bliss, if it exists,
might be the assassin of agony—
a shadow moving swift
beneath a temple-dark sky-of-mind.

When pain dissolves, a ghost is born—
the whisper-thin trace
of a breath-dulled blade
caught behind splintered ribs.

Every joy steals from ache,
and borrowed light burns bright enough
to sharpen edges left behind— 

leaving only the faint shape
of what you once called yours.

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N D Allison physically exists in Austin, TX with his family, two strange dogs and a shifting sense of self. A collector of afterimages, he attempts to capture what dissolves, what remains and the thin space between. His writing is shaped by experiences gathered while traveling the globe as a soldier and civilian, and his poems and musings have appeared in various small journals and on his blog, The Truth About Tigers—if you’re into that sort of thing.