No Blood to Show

a monster crow sits
on my hip
won’t let go

steely talons grip
to the bone
draw no blood

soot wings engulf me
paralyzing
painful hood

it feeds on slumber
shallow breath
relishes the flavor

its razor beak pecks
a relentless
mocking terror

I’m its homely cage
pain seeds my brain
feeds the savage

Barely Breathing

now she sits with the hours around her

cross-legged, bare wrists, palms open

barely a breath

she waits

while the narcotic snake coils around

broken nerves

pain fades

banging turns to murmurs

then fear and misery turn back

toward hope

Rachel Larensen is a culinary professional. Rachel battles fibromyalgia daily but uses poetry to see the magic that is in the world. She has been published twice in the Freshwater Poetry Journal, a publication of Asnuntuck Community College, and has had an essay published on the blog Herstry. She lives in Enfield, CT with a loving husband, two adult sons and two cats.