A Grave Resolution

on love and loss

Photo by Nicholas Gercken on Unsplash

The sigh of relief, as audible
to me as nails across chalkboard,
never escaped her chest. The weight of him
oppressed her in ways no one else could see.

Her coffeed eyes blinked stories through me,
heavy, untold riddles,
while her beauty lay
in the hollow of shadows…

How she looked

away

through cries of

he seems nice to her, it was too easy for
them to judge when freshly starched.
To smile and nod, pretend to

sympathize

when no one cares to
sort the truth of a mortared pain that
stacks behind lines of a half-smile because
she
won’t
be a burden or a drag, she’ll just

puff

another while he prays

to a God she does not know,
nor care to. She prays
to the ether in hopes of
finding someone who does.