i chose to hide
hiding until not even
the moon and constellations
could find me now

see, this is the quandary
of innocence

your crime becomes my skin
becomes my marrow
where your violence went is
a roadmap of never will

i may have chosen
the dusty attic and cobwebs
with a bed tightly smashed
against the broken wall, but i never

chose such marred sheets

in my dreams
i still have fingers replaced by tentacles
and the quiet streets are the ones
i most fear

Tiffany Shaw-Diaz is a Pushcart Prize and Dwarf Stars Award nominee who also works as a professional visual artist. Her poetry has been featured in Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, Bones, NHK World Haiku Masters, The Mainichi, and dozens of other publications. Her first chapbook, says the rose, was published by Yavanika Press in 2019, and her second chapbook, filth, was published by Proleteria in 2020.