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What happens to pain
that never dissolves?
Does it float around
in tendons and nerves
like unused soap?
Bubbling, sticking,
gumming up pipes and
pathways
tricking you into thinking
it will simply melt.

If you swallow
and scrub hard enough
does the mass come away?

Or is it like a chemical
that burns
through veins and dreams
and nightmares,
forcing you to vomit
until you collapse
from overload?

Tell me,
what happens to your pain
if the clean slate never comes?