Breaker
By: Loukia Borrell
Idle Ink
June 2022
You picked me because I was
the best. The best you ever had.
I turned you on, you said, but wouldn’t
Turn on you. I could keep a secret,
Especially a good one, like ours.
I know you won’t tell, you said.
Too much integrity. Too chicken.
But you don’t know me, so don’t think that.
I have decapitated harmless snakes.
Put a garden hoe to their necks and
Pushed down through their spines with
All my weight, called them sons of bitches
Until I found my way through their bones,
Breaking them all, until the hoe arrived
Straight to the ground, under their
Departing bodies. I am a breaker.
It may have been enough to turn
My back on them, flick them away,
But I wanted to kill them, split them in two,
When just before my arrival they were
Outstretched and lazy, luxuriating
under the shade of my fig trees.
Now they all know who I am,
And one day, you will, too.
