Invisible Shadows

I picked you up,
but you were already gone–
already gray with time,
dusty with forgetfulness,
and I wondered
when you had become so lost,

so torn and broken
that even love
couldn’t save you.

And your lifeless skin
laid bare across
my own staunch
repose–
chilling slumber
that whites out
my eyes,
and justifies
all the lies
that carried us here.

Your silence
still startles
the taut flesh
gripping my bones,
and you stir up my pieces
as if they were real,
as if some magic
had filtered through
the vast doldrums

of what lies in front,
shadowing all that is behind.

for a mind
out of town
doesn’t leave
the lights on
long enough to
enamor the neighbors,
or piss away
the repository
of memory –

those precious pools
of thought.
but this was
more than apathy–
than stout emptiness.

It was all that had slipped
so carelessly
through our stretched fingers,
through time we tossed aside
until someone else noticed
the vast caverns
forming below our skin,
until the ghosts
became shadows that
stuck instead of haunted.

A sickly,
password-protected
existence climbing
the walls of insanity…

***

This piece is a collaboration between myself and Christopher Rupley. He is an amazing writer and a great friend. Go check out his blog.

~ Patience 

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