New poem: Under My Fingernails

poetry/index.gmi

@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@
 => t/two-two.txt	Two Two
 
 ## U
+=> u/under-my-fingernails.txt	Under My Fingernails
 => u/uncharming.txt	uncharming veneer
 
 ## V

poetry/index.gph

@@ -156,6 +156,7 @@ iT
 0Two Two	t/two-two.txt
 
 iU	
+0Under My Fingernails	u/under-my-fingernails.txt
 0uncharming veneer	u/uncharming.txt
 
 iV	

poetry/index.html

@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@
 	├── <a href="./g/">g</a><br>
 	│   ├── <a href="./g/garden-gym.txt">garden-gym.txt</a><br>
 	│   ├── <a href="./g/gemini.txt">gemini.txt</a><br>
+	│   ├── <a href="./g/gradation.txt">gradation.txt</a><br>
 	│   ├── <a href="./g/green.txt">green.txt</a><br>
 	│   ├── <a href="./g/grey.txt">grey.txt</a><br>
 	│   └── <a href="./g/the-golden-cage.txt">the-golden-cage.txt</a><br>
@@ -169,7 +170,8 @@
 	│   ├── <a href="./t/twenty-one.txt">twenty-one.txt</a><br>
 	│   └── <a href="./t/two-two.txt">two-two.txt</a><br>
 	├── <a href="./u/">u</a><br>
-	│   └── <a href="./u/uncharming.txt">uncharming.txt</a><br>
+	│   ├── <a href="./u/uncharming.txt">uncharming.txt</a><br>
+	│   └── <a href="./u/under-my-fingernails.txt">under-my-fingernails.txt</a><br>
 	├── <a href="./v/">v</a><br>
 	│   ├── <a href="./v/viaje.txt">viaje.txt</a><br>
 	│   └── <a href="./v/victor.txt">victor.txt</a><br>
@@ -183,7 +185,7 @@
 	</p>
 	<p>
 
-22 directories, 128 files
+22 directories, 130 files
 	<br><br>
 	</p>
 	<hr>

poetry/u/under-my-fingernails.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+Under My Fingernails
+2022-05-25
+
+***
+
+One can't raise a caricature of a human being
+and then draw that same self livid
+when everything their child sees
+is out of proportion.
+
+Turn again the ragged page,
+but cover your eyes so you don't see
+the crude pencil-filled sketchings
+of my genus, my culled genious,
+blueprints of my taxidermy,
+footnotes of a contract forever ago signed:
+"You promise me that you'll be mine
+for as long as I can keep you alive."
+
+A blood oath
+that we both
+signed
+with the rivers through which flow our lives.
+But I got too much under my fingernails,
+double-crossed in reflex, same unleashing hell
+in a moment I made the mistake of asking if all was well.
+And when I noticed what I had done,
+I turned back the hands of time
+to when you and I
+were still alive.
+A memory is just a record, one that I can rewrite
+in case of failure, in case hard enough I did not try.
+
+You only know of this because this deep-
+sworn vow I am unable to keep,
+to keep to myself the number of rewinds.
+I am testing, and you are production,
+only knowing of the strand of fate accepted,
+battle-tested,
+deemed sacred and happy and true.
+Is it comforting, I wonder, to know
+there will be no futures where I hurt you?
+
+***
+
+CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (c) Vane Vander