Cracked Cement & Sepia Lives

Stony masks

Begin to crack

She opens her mouth

But is met with silence

Surprise widens her eyes

As her hair thins and fades

Water streaks her face

With dirty memories

She grips her yellowed dress

Her legs are weak

But still she stands

Her thin frame shaking with the effort

Sepia lives

And sorrow dipped lies

Topped with fateful remedies

Poison in a seed

Growing into dying crooked limbs

Where she will break

And dust will swirl

Blowing past like dandelion wishes

And she’s alone

On the side of the road

Breathing in the dry dirt

That’s sulfur in her lungs

There’s no one there

Only filth and air

And stillness

Engulfing the world

Sympathies are none

Population is one

A mirror

That needs to be cleaned

Even if a gentle hand

Brushed across her cheek

She would not notice its warmth

Or sensitivity

And so perhaps

At this point

It’s better for us all

To just leave her alone

So she can fall

Crashing at her own accord

Scratching out our every word

As a tree falls in a forest

She’ll sleep still secretly

Her existence runs away from us

And becomes a mystery

But perhaps at this point,

It’s best to let sleeping girls lie

Forever sleeping in their sepia lives.