once flesh then ivory and finally marble

pygmalion, who did you pray to?

i was human once

once upon a time there was a princess singing downy tones by the nightside window of a rumbling traincar and her eyes folded at the corners and filled into two sightless concord crescents when she laughed.

pygmalion, you said you would fix me but all you did was turn my skin into diamond and the corners of my eyes into exotic ice.

my pupils are rigid glass vortices and my fingers have drill bits extending from the bone.

once upon a time there was a princess who dangled her legs from chairs and suckled on cherry bubblegum lollipops and did sticky barefoot backflips off the roof of a honda into oncoming traffic thinking it was a gentle stream.

pygmalion, you said you would show me the world but all you did was cauterize my gashes and splice wires into my spine that connected me to bug-eyed footage of the city and lick your lips as my mind clambered to envelop those intrusions like rust embracing a lightning rod.

once upon a time there was a princess with peony rouge brushing the noble domes of her face, who twirled amidst sunflowers, amidst chromatic scales.

who let the underside of her clipped hair burst in summer winds smelling of fruit jellies and dry salt and starfalls 

pygmalion, you said you would lace my bones with fairy iron and scald my mind in the crucible of a weapon. 

but any souvenir snowglobe becomes dangerous when crushed against the ground.

curved, flawless lenses coronated with chaotic edges.

the potential to be harmed distorted, focused, and reflected into a laser will to harm.

pygmalion, once upon a time i was alive and afraid of death.

now i am immortal.