prey (poem)

what do you call the animal that, finding the hunter, offers itself to be eaten?

you’ve called her by my name
called her ‘sweet angel’
‘prettiest lamb come for the slaughter’
‘softest thing in the dark’

your willing hopeful sacrifice
neck bared and 
begging to be slit

you call me delicious, consumable prey
an accumulation of anguish 

but it's really my body
my flesh prison
dear to me, only
it is all I’ve ever had

I can do nothing else
but defend it
I know of nothing else
taught this creed and abandoned into the world 

I always thought to endure means to love