SCARS<\/strong>
\nWord Count: 270<\/p>\n

I traced the scars down your back, long paths deepened by the dim streetlights that sieved through the curtains. You shivered away from my fingertips but said nothing. I thought I knew enough not to ask you about them. About your time in Iraq and your best bud you watched explode into pieces. Sometimes you screamed in your sleep.<\/p>\n

That was the last night we made love, the last time I touched you before you died.<\/p>\n

It was something someone had said to you at the bar. I didn\u2019t go and I should have. Maybe I could have stopped you but I didn\u2019t know. Flashes of silver cut through the night air cramped in an alley. Three against one. The one filled with anger that had simmered for decades and I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Beatings, they told me. The scars were almost as old as you. A belt buckle, a coat hanger maybe, the man didn\u2019t know. Your back streaked with a past you never told me about. I thought it was from the war and I suppose in a way I was right. Your mother and father were dead, you said, and I didn\u2019t know that you meant it was only to you.<\/p>\n

The quiet of evening settles into our room. It\u2019s real then; I know you are gone. I sit undressed on our bed, too weary to even lay down. I reach for your tee-shirt, the one you last wore, wanting to sleep in your scent. And I touch my chest where your life bled out. My heart beats against my fingertips. I imagine it weaving a scar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCARS Word Count: 270 I traced the scars down your back, long paths deepened by the dim streetlights that sieved through the curtains. You shivered away from my fingertips but said nothing. I thought I knew enough not to ask … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2011","category-mainstream","tag-mainstream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1102,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/1102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}