famine
We look to one another’s 
Bodies 
Like we do for scars. 
 
It’s bitter and sweet 
To reflect 
Upon my birth
 
Like an Illegitimate child
In time’s 
Past 
 
But mine were wed -
A decade, they held it together 
For me they said 
 
I would say not to do me
Any favors
And I wept in my bed 
 
Over the stains 
That were like shards 
Of glass 
 
Or blades of grass 
That scratched up
My kneecaps 
 
Until they bled. 
And I would devour 
The soap box 
 
Before I would let
Them
Into my heart again. 
 
I would feed of them 
Bacon grease
And tuna - 
 
The carnivore for meat. 
I am not kidding when 
I say I love you 
 
Because my love 
Is tenderized - 
Worn on my sleeve 
 
And they devoured
Me
like that in my youth 
 
And I am naked again
in my flesh. 
The way it had been done
Then. 

Candace Meredith earned her Bachelor of Science degree in English Creative Writing from Frostburg State University in the spring of 2008. Her works of poetry, photography and fiction have appeared in literary journals Bittersweet, The Backbone Mountain Review, The Broadkill Review, In God’s Hands/ Writers of Grace, A Flash of Dark, Greensilk Journal, Saltfront, Mojave River Press and Review, Scryptic Magazine, Unlikely Stories Mark V and various others. Candace currently resides in Virginia with her son and her daughter, her fiancé and their three dogs and six cats. She has earned her Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications (IMC) from West Virginia University.