Indelible

I can see your scars.

They're in the way you talk,

how you pull your sleeves down.

How you slump.

I can see your scars.

They're in your stare.

From when you were sat in the rain for pissing the bed.

I can hear your damage.

14 with the voice of a forty year old,

screaming raghead in the streets.

I can see your scars.

When you shit yourself

missing dad.

I can see your scars.

But I've never seen what you've seen.

Your scars are

an unkindness of ravens.

I can see your scars

in how I treat my sons.

I wish they realised.

Indelible

your scars are

a murmuration of starlings.