A/N: Written for
Mega Prompts Challenge, #485 - tame
The All Those Different Colours Challenge, red negative
Invisible Screw
She is the screw none of them even know is there.
She is the screw that dislodges, unaware
except the joint which creaks, and with it
comes the pains he can't forget, can't brush aside
So it digs into him, like a parasite
burrowing under skin and touching
his brain: the wheel that's suddenly changed hands
and not one of them knows, not one of them sees
or that little scar left behind.
It's all buried beneath new armour.
New, tough armour with a tough hide
their nails can't crack, and their nails
break instead: nails on a wall they hammer at
to no avail, and they don't even see
the little hole that's the answer to it all
But the mind's a clever thing; it fills
the blanks itself when the body fails
and eventually she is there, the screw, again
and the leak is plugged.
The acid-armour he wears crumbles.
The parasite too long at home now starves.
She's no longer the screw that holds it all in place
but she's here, in spirit, and that's enough
for him to reach out, now, and plug the hole
himself, a bandaid over the phantom pains
still there.