touched ✓

xviii

my mother said it was normal.

they called it child

p r o t e c t i o n

services,

I was placed in a room with

a bunch of other broken toys.

broken toys from a

b

ro

ken

home.

and then i grew up,

realized the world was fucked;

i met this guy

at a bar.

he wasn't like you, no.

he was only

n i c e

on the outside,

nice for a couple months.

until he convinced me to move in with him.

there, i learned that he too

had his own form of brokenness.

he too had been tainted by the touch.

but I was too deep to realize that he was

rotten and completely molted to the core.

and the worst thing,

was the fact that

i was drunk and stupid when i let him

take advantage.

i was drunk and stupid

when i lost myself.

my mother said it was normal.