What are these striations upon my flesh?
Each stripe burnt deep into my very core …
Forming a bar code ….
Marking purchases and their cost
Every one showing the back story
Of my soul …
Lines of joy, love, happiness …
Graduation, marriage, birth of children …
Stripes carved to show a triumph, a landmark …
Other stripes …. Pain, loss, soul searing events
Each of which leave behind a mark … A scar …fading over time … yet… there
What factory was this piece of my pain manufactured in?
Place of origin.. date stamped …
Each striation stamped with it’s makers mark:
Here the faded stripe named Michelle …
How my heart ached when she didn’t feel the same ..
Bone deep that one ..
From high school …
A jagged striation shows the rejection I felt
A cost paid in longing, frustration, hurt …
Seared in the pathways of teenaged angst …
Healed by another later …
Yet the channel is deep …
Here a thick red one wherein I failed
To protect my sister from the guy that assaulted her
All those years ago …
The one that was never caught …
The pain now muted, yet still throbs occasionally …
A few painful stripes earned as a child
When I was crippled by a disease in my feet ..
Marks denoting the heartfelt pain of watching…
Yearning, longing … praying …
Wishing to be able to run, play… laugh
Crimson stripes purchased at the cost of a child’s soul …
Striations in livid blues, blacks, purples … crimson …
We all have a code …
A bar code stamped upon our psyche …
Which if read by the scanner of God …
Tally’s up the costs of a life lived
A life loved
A life hated
Every blow leaving striated marks
Each joy causing others to fade …
Most have indeed faded over time …
Some overwritten by gains …
Yet the final line stamped …
Blasted through the others…
Overshadowing … rewriting me from inside out…
That line you parsed …
When you strayed …
Now I know …
The true cost
Of my mortal soul
You set the Bar …
Then:
You broke the Code …
About the Creator
Andrew C McDonald
Andrew McDonald was a 911 dispatcher for 30 yrs with a B.S. in Math (1985). He served as an Army officer 1985 to 1992, honorably exiting a captain.
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Keys-Andrew-C-McDonald-ebook/dp/B07VM843XL?ref_=ast_author_dp
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Comments (2)
This was so intense and emotional. Sending you lots of love and hugs ❤️
Mate.............this has to be your finest piece! I am literally reeling shock sorrow sadness all vying for pole position. I feel privileged for being allowed to read this! Above and beyond good Sir!