Sacrificial Rat

Watching you unfold like a creation myth
I remember you are the hook on my nape
You can lift and hang me
Drain me like a sacrifice
While you put on an artifice of tears
Tears that bled like cherries
I watched two wicks burn out black until you came back
I watched you lick bourbon off the backs of boys I barely knew
I watched through thick fog the backs of two figures walking away
I watched you giddy at the thought of getting rid of me
You watched me watch all of this and said
‘The scientist learns at the expense of the rat’
I watched as you graft its cells on the petri
I watched you pensive as it screeches
You watched it and said
‘Stepping stones teach better than doormats’
The rat on the hook starts to look more like a lamb
You watched it and noted
‘Subject five… failure’