And it Bleeds by Carrie Vaccaro Nelkin

Not like a cut
or puncture wound,
but like the pinnate lines
of a feather 
tracing skin,
at first the tickling of angel hair,
then the furrowing of edges 
into gouges
that scrape to a halt 
inside the heart,
where the aching folds remind you
of how each loss
piles atop the other
and becomes
the ballast to your life,
the weight that keeps you upright.
The weight that keeps you.
The weight.

Carrie Vaccaro Nelkin’s poetry has appeared in Mirror Dance, Third Wednesday, Connecticut River Review, and Corvus Review, among other places. A member of the Horror Writers Association, Carrie is author of the novel Snare and has stories in journals like Bards and Sages Quarterly, Supernatural Tales, and Luna Station Quarterly.