The Pull of Death
has many names:

Jim
Dad
Woody
Papa
Randy
Arkeem
Noni
Lexi
Tim

"How do you carry
the weight
of memories?"
I asked.

She looked at me,
tears filling her eyes.

The cup
I have filled
with you,
is pouring out
leaving me
dry
and
dead.

Broken images
flash through the mind.

All the joy and togetherness
of family
gone.

When you live in a kaleidoscope
the loss of colour to life
leaves more emptiness
in its absence.

And your tears
are useless platitudes
to the thought
of ever having it back.

And her love
has become
the very thing
you always feared
it would.

And this broken family
has broken again.

Who would ever see
beyond my flaws
and still want me forever
despite them?

His eyes became wells
overflowing
buckets of regret
drawn from the emptiness
that crawls up his walls.

The colors run
passionate
cotton candy
water colors.

I hold out loud
conversations
with the ghost of you
in my bed.