Have You Been Told?

Have you been told that your breath reeks

The scent of blood

From the hearts that you've chewed and spit

With the scarlet juice dripping down your chin

Have you smelt how your hands smell like

Rusted metal 

From the wrists that you've forced to slit

Spilling the vermilion on washroom tiles

Have you been told how glassy your eyes are

Seeing only Greys

Yet dictating where the rainbows shine

Shattering colours that you don't even see

Have you been told how your skin has wrinkled

From the frowns 

That simply don't understand love

Breaking minds hidden in closets

Have you felt the burden of your sins

The weight of the children

You took from their kin

With the souls that haunt your bedside 

Have you not been told that

No pilgrimages aren't soap

That rinse out hands that have gotten dirty

The river waters you seek 

Sadly, don't flow with bleach

Where you drown yourself in 

And come out clean.