Subtle Suicides

stones breach the surface. the pebbles and the boulders. they fall at the same rate. they make holes of the same depth.

the traffic hums. instinctively avoiding the shadow she casts. the silence is a pedestrian. gone too far. febrile with its own intersections.

choices imitate the monsters in our heads. the roar of surrender. the fickle of regret.

there was time once. but it expired years ago. there were passages we thought would always be there. but now there's a toll at every bridge.

i don't remember the colors. the images are all i can recall. blood saturating the thin bandages we improvised to dress those deepest cuts.

he doesn't say. or won't. how much further he thinks it is. the fraying ropes in his choices. the broken zippers in his head. all of them coming undone.