dark, I know... this too shall pass. I hope. I really do love fall. Dawn


            Light dims and I am consumed  
by memory of her cackles,
ten years magnified.

Like dark birds multiplying in clouded skies,
she descends by cover of night to feast
upon the last crumbs of hope
left on crescent sliver
of my bone.

            Swept in on the wind or swish of broom
comes the ghost of him and hollow ring
of his vacant words:

“There are things I should have said or done;
You know there are things I, too, regret.”
In echoed tones of a tolling bell
he wishes me success.
He wishes me well.
 
            An angry mob storms my mind,
demanding revenge
for God knows what.

Their hiss of whispers slices my spirit.
News from the revolving gossip mill
says I have blood on my hands.
A flood of falsehood
ushers in my doom.

            Gaunt ghoul of the man I live with appears,
his sinister smile a final frightening image burned
upon my bubbling brain.

He spreads his death with every breath,
breeds negativity. So horrified
that this hell has been, is still,
my life, I can neither
shake nor scream.