Lead and Roses
I watched each letter weep and fall away as smoke consumed your incantations. I bet you thought you'd hook me again, that just like the paper in my hands, I would burn and let your lies seethe into my skin. You were always a master of deception, with eyes that grabbed hold of nerve endings, cutting deep within and shackling my spine with glorified intent. A chain of lead, wrapped in roses. I thought it was what I needed. The pain I felt then; something we shared. I never thought that you meant to leave me, a skeleton hanging from a crimson thread; surging your disguise into rotting vines. But though you tried to hide it, I saw the change. I felt your hands tremble over mine, as you told me it would be "okay". The blink in your once frozen stare, and the way your teeth sank into the clouds; escaping lustful lungs. I watched you kindle the fire we built together, as I grew colder before the dawn. Your smile; that shining flash of sheethed sincerity, slowly became scars in the break of mourning as the sun began its exorcism. Its light shined on sinew, urging it to pull itself free of a now vitreous capture. I knew then, that those eyes sought the marrow of me, I had to be free. And so, charged with its last rugged pulse, I sunk brittle bone into the heart of my love and let the rest wither under the purge of day. Leaving nothing left for you to feed upon. It took me years to heal, mending bone to flesh and heart to mind. Yet the day you sent this letter, I watched my pain turn to ashes, let the wind sweep you toward the echo of false promises and smiled at scars that helped me find the sun.
-James Kelley 2014, All rights reserved.
Copyright © James Kelley | Year Posted 2014
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