Hello, I have read this three times now and each time I've found something else I 'like' (that's an understatement) about this piece. You always seem to have a way of words that bring me right into the piece and make me feel how you were feeling when you thought of it and wrote it - it's a really good talent that I haven't found in many poets especially here but one that always seems to touch me in ways I thought was impossible, anyway I digress.

The title shouts 'Regression' shouts out to me that you have 'regressed' in some way back into your former self, maybe you have been pulled back into something as simple as smoking again when you've tried so hard to stop.. I know this is relapse not regression but it's similar in ways that you to back to a 'former self'

MARRED
^
The use of capital letters her extremely powerful especially with the word and it's meaning of being 'damaged or render less perfect, attractive or useful' as to me this makes it seem as though not only you are feeling this way about you or someone else but that other people feel this way about it too, unfortunately and it's not a nice way to feel about oneself.

by your hands alone. I offer my neck willingly
for a thorough examination; claspen your fingers
around the scalpel and drag it across naked flesh,
and out, will pour a steady stream of offerings.
^
Here, I wonder why are you willingly offering your neck to someone for a thorough examination unless it's a doctor, ofcourse but as I read on and the end of the stanza says 'and out, will pour a steady stream of offerings' so I feel this is offerings to a loved one who you have been 'marred by' but despite this marring, you still love this person and will seemingly forgive them as we always do when we love a person especially when true love.

Your obsidian-mahogany eyes chisels away;
there are depths of me, you wish unearthed –
you mistake vulnerability for intimacy,
this - I know.
^
I gasped at this especially 'you mistake vulnerability for intimacy' as I've been there and that's one scar that will stay with me forevermore. My heart goes out to you.

Sunlight announces himself at the door,
begging for scraps, you invite him and
he gorges himself on you, and by
evening, you waltz together before
he dissipates into the night like a
fevered dream.
^
This is my favourite stanza, the image of sunlight knocking on the door to say I've arrived 'sunlight announces himself at the door' and 'begging for scraps' like a neighbours sneaky cat going round the houses pretending it's not owned, begging for scraps and go back to it's rightful owner 2 stone heavier with all the food but not a care in the world.

You have a habit of collecting strays.
^
This is a real kick in the gut that you're even liking yourself to a stray. It breaks my heart into a million pieces but as the saying goes 'we are our own worse enemies.'

Forgive me.
^
What a poem. The imagery is just WOW!! I have one thing to say though, we have to forgive ourselves sometimes too.
Nominated.
Take care,
Em x