Shadowglass

She dissolves in plain sight

not absence,

but a presence too quiet

to disturb the air.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

He passes through her,

eyes grazing

but never stopping.

Ears twitch

at the sound of her breath,

then forget she ever exhaled.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

Her days smear into one another,

unlabeled jars on a shelf,

collecting dust,

never opened.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

There is no forward,

only this

a transit

that does not end.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

He speaks to the shape of her

but never the soul inside it.

He holds her weight

as if it were a coat

he might shrug off

when summer comes.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

She gave him the last of her language,

and now she is mute.

Dependent not by choice,

but by erosion

the slow undoing

of a self

that once stood upright.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

Her eyes,

mirrors turned inward,

see too much

and nothing at all.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

Inside;

a silent howl lodges deep

where words once grew.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--

If even one voice reached back

unafraid of the dark,

unshaken by the quiet storm

perhaps

the silence

would not bruise

so deeply.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--