A Melting Image
The color seemed to drain from the sky,
falling in small orbs as the blues turned to greys.
The trees all seemed to droop, the green of the leaves seeping back into the ground.
The roses recoiled from the cool air,
shutting themselves off from the world protecting their vulnerability.
The water below the bridge played games, waves playing tag,
colliding, the screams of their collisions filled her ears.
Raindrops coating her white knuckles, her hands tightly grasping the bridge bars behind her.
Tear drops covering her swollen lip, mingling with the blood.
Brisk wind on the bruises of her inner thighs,
the empty marks where hands once grasped on her wrists.
Her mind seemed to become color blind, as the world around her melted behind a curtain of tears, ending the horror show that was once playing in front of them.
Her audience were the members of the play, the grass that had been below her body, the screams that seemed to linger in the air awaiting the new ones.
Now in the after credits she is the only one to be seen.
Her heart is empty and her will has vanished into the depths below her.
She removes her pinky from the bar, letting go of her smallest worries,
her grades, her job, her small extra things that once brought her joy, but are now the pebbles that will help her sink.
she removes her middle and ring fingers, letting go of her mediocre problems.
her breakup, her friendships, her college rejections. Once hopes that helped her move but are now the strings that help tie her feet together.
She removes her index finger, letting go of the things that pushed her to this bridge. Her parents divorce, her fathers repetitive slaps to the face, his words that whipped into her skin, and lastly the memory of the boys in the forest. Who dragged her, and put the tape on her mouth that will silence her scream as she falls.
She removes her thumb. Letting go of her existence.
When they look into the death of one beautiful girl, the last thing she left behind,
was a painting of a bridge, with stormy waters, and a girl, being engulfed in its depths, although the photo looks as if its melting, it al becoming one.
Copyright © Paige Reed | Year Posted 2018
|