Off The Edge
You cup your palm
Around the last cigarette;
A flicker of fire,
Smoke curls around your eyelids.
Burnt grey air lingers around us
Tugging at the lint of our sleeves,
Filling the gap.
I'd known for months—
I had to leave.
For two years
We claimed our crooked castle,
Built on the edge of a cliff;
I chained myself inside
To keep from falling.
This time, I refused to be
Pushed.
So King and Queen we sat,
Atop rotting mesh of lies
Secrets buried beneath the rug.
For a while
I pretended I couldn't smell them.
Tonight,
We are two silhouettes
Familiar, yet empty.
I paint a picture in the charcoal sky:
Two faces staring back at us
They smile,
And we've forgotten how they feel
But we smile back.
The ember burns between us slowly
I trace the outline of the illusion
One last time.
Now, I'd fallen before-
Tricked by a hand I had trusted
A gentle shove off the side
Tumbling into suffocating black,
Alone.
This time
I jumped.