wooden boys kiss like splinters
shards of themselves slipping beneath your skin

once upon a time, you were softer
but every lost puppet who called you Blue Fairy,
tried to make himself real in your arms,
only transformed you into something other than yourself

until
you retreated to the sea
and became the Monster whose mouth they crawled out of

Sarah ChristianScher is a poet trapped inside the body of a biologist. Her poetry has appeared in Dark Ink: A Poetry Anthology Inspired by Horror, Like A Girl: Perspectives on Feminism, and Short Poems Ain’t Got Nobody to Love. She has also been featured on the Silver Birch Press poetry blog, Voicemail Poems, and as Moon Tide Press Poet of the Month. To catch a glimpse of Sarah in her natural poetic habitat, find her at the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry open mic in Orange, California.