When your teeth bit down I broke in two,

splitting down the middle like kindling

the halves peeling open

to reveal the flakes of me crumbling

to charcoal dust in your mouth.

Water couldn’t swill the taste of me out

and spitting only left streaks

drawn down your chin,

watery grey lines smeared across skin

and stains on a handkerchief

that wouldn’t wash out.

There was no mettle to me

instead I buckled beneath your heat,

melted and warped

into puddles of slag you left behind

dotting the pavement

as loose coins might have fallen

face down,

ashamed.

Bronze is beaten until burnished

but I was not bronze.

Perhaps it was best you left me behind.

---

Daily Prompt: Assay