**** me in The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. We’ll rut around in the artificial grass, taking in the beautiful world God created just 6000 years ago. Adam & Eve will pass us knowing glances and smiles while a velociraptor stands idly by, chewing on greenery. I know He says it’s an Abomination, but you’re just so god ****** cute and the talking snake says it’s cool. When we’re finished, Eve will ask if we’re hungry. She’ll hand me a shining red apple.

The inane things you say make me want to die. The fumble, the field goal, the basket, the tackle. How ******* hot your girlfriend looks in that tight top and short skirt. How you could totally nail the girl who just walked past us at the bar.

But when your nicotine dusted fingertips start to make my lips go numb. When you grab my hair. When you gasp. And when we’re lying there after. That’s when I forget these things.

I guess I’ll live.

I'm lying here with the light on. The fan is set on speed 3, and it's pointed directly on me. Social networks dance on my computer screen. Faces of people, some of whom I've never met, spout endless minutia. So do I. We'd like to think that all of this is bring us closer to one another, but that is anything but the truth. This faux interconnectedness is just another way to live together, alone. These pills are beginning to take hold. My mouth is dry, and not even the coldest, clearest water can quench it. Sometimes I equate staying up that one last hour with having that one last drink. It's the one that always kills you in the morning.

It's 4:45 AM, and my alarm is set for noon.

They stare at me, their eyes all heterochromatic. One blue, one green. One brown, another hazel. Their bodies twist & turn in that cold, empty darkness. They whisper to one another, but their gaze does not falter. I can feel nothing but malice. I try & step back, but I find I am up against a wall. As they inch closer & closer I realize that yesterday was the last time I will ever see a sunrise. I close my eyes as tears trickle down. They envelope me.

Stale and sour
Stagnant, stuck
My batteries have lost their power
and I am fresh out of luck.
Windows boarded up,
sunlight can't reach in.
Wine sticks softly to my glass.
I am Isolation.

If this ceiling were the floor,
I'd be taller than the windows.
When we kiss I feel like I am standing in a pool of cold, rising water.
You'll constantly be surrounded by things you need to avoid.
Extraordinary is seeing around you.

If winter ends
I'll lead you gently by the hand.
Out to a field of comatose flowers,
Soft snow melting with each corresponding step.
And when that first ray of sunshine hits
your porcelain face,
I'll know my choice was sound.

And if winter ends
We will sing silently to songs with no words.
We'll dance to songs not heard on any radio.

And if winter ends
I'll buy you that ring.
The one from the supermarket quarter machine.
Things only seen in childhood dreams,
I'll make it yours.
I'll make it mine.
I'll make it ours.

If winter ends.