Burdens

[Magpie]

I always felt a nervous flutter
buying razor blades and peroxide
at the local pharmacy
but nobody ever batted an eye.--- I was going to say 'Don't you mean eyelid?' either way both are a cliche which spoil this otherwise excellent opening stanza

I carved, slashed, crosshatched-- --Not sure about them two dashes and their purpose. Is crosshatched all one word, some places say that it's hyphenated
watched as rivulets ran down,
admired them, the wounds
sometimes dripping into paint,
leaving DNA in my creations. 

My best work I left in a graveyard.-- This line kind of leaves me wanting more information, although I do like the idea of it being symbolic.

Had I known about scarification-- I don't feel that the mention of 'scarification' adds anything here. It seems an odd thing to say that had you known there were others that made art from scars... When it feels like what you are really saying is, 'Had I thought ahead'
I might have made designs instead of
chaotic and haphazard gashes, the scars
a reminder of ugliness so loud
my ears still ring now.

They say you can't remember pain.-- Who are they? 
True, you don't, just that there was,
but it is there like a shadow that remains.

Maybe one day there will be enough light
from all directions to make it go away.-- To make what go away? The pain. This is a little bit confusing.
The scars won't matter and I won't be so tired
from being an ox in a yoke.-- And hence the reason for the title, if 'ox in a yoke' is another way of saying 'beast of burden' then it is bordering on cliche

Hi,
The first part of the poem works better for me but is somewhat spoilt by the end which seems to be wanting to add some kind of justification for the mutilation. I don't feel as though it is needed. And although I said that the line about the graveyard left me wanting more information, I feel as though it would make an excellent last line of the poem. That's not to say that what comes after should be scrapped, just that if it could be moved to be the last line I think it would work.

Thanks for sharing,

Mark