For Thy Peace, My Soul

20.

The bones curved like the crumbling arches of Pont Flavien. The joints fused together, soldered by age’s cooling iron. Each step an agony that stretches time, yet we all move forward thusly. The days are devoured by the night faster and faster as if that rapacious beast can never be filled.

Then last night falls.

The sun never to rise again.

I watched your birth. I tallied every breath you drew in and every word expelled. I recorded the beats of your heart until I could tear you from the bottom of my list. Finally. Wretched beast of a man, I must now endure your depravity as my own. Another torment to my afflicted spirit.