Slither

It's outside... Isn't it? Her thoughts moving in sketchy bubbles. Words not spoken. Life recycling itself. The tips of her fingers aglow like a burning cigarette. And just as hazardous to your health.

It's time... more than enough of it. So what do I do with it now? Leave the cockroaches to multiply inside these walls until everything is infested.

It's just friendship... or what I've mistaken for it. Sad kites on their way to the sun. Strings without fists.

It's too easy to turn out the light. Sit in the dark. The sounds just enough to keep me from hating who I am. Or worse yet, hating who I was when I tried to be someone they could know. Someone they might love. Or at least notice the hours we share as they kill us.

Alone is how soft. Melting bones and gathering skins. To build the effigy. To let her go, but never forget what she's taught me.

So much truth inside those tiny moments. The slender snake with a bulge in its belly. The culmination of the hunt, sadly, only sustenance.

Nothing greater.

One blink. Just one.

And it's all gone again.