Chantelle's Heart

She slips through the garden grown heels clicking softly upon the cobblestones but she had become hardened in her walks blinded, immune to the beauty that once lay in their talk when her heart swore with him she'd forever walk. Chantilly white lace upon her shoulders along firepit glow in gray ash and smolder, smoky plumes filled with images haze dredged the glossy chimney silhouettes shadow walking on the edge in denial of love's forever pledge. Chantelle listened to the hush of her heart emboldened hardcore beauty long beyond the start where rocks formed walls, natural and man-made occasional memories that drew them apart and afraid of all the sculptured dream of two lives waylaid. Just a minute more, a mere second on the broken gravel road where Chantelle tossed the diamond gem ring he once bestowed and the reflection of light glimmered to fade and unfold her broken heart emptied of love to fill it full of stone replacing seething emotion to mere flesh and bone. The night would come and she would still stroll through the garden now of stone within her soul harsh and cold, tear burn and love stories no more be told Chantelle melted in the mists of a moonlight glow and only stones remain to hold the secret of why she had to go. Chantelle's story for Julia Ward's contest on the name Shantelle. 2/28/20