stand quietly here, love
yes, next to me.
Enough to feel the air pass between us,
between breaths,
as the wind gasps.
do you hear them, dear?
those voices the Echoes bring to us?
Ghastly, aren't they.
******, dark voices,
wrought and rent like the chests they came from.
Look at them, darling.
watch their feet melt into red earth.
their hands, too, fraught with iron.
Faces, see their faces?
There is your father, your husband, your brother, your son, dear.
Your daughter, your wife, your sister, your mother.
See their hollow mouths agape?
Hear their voices screaming?
That's what pain sounds like.
Your heart is making the same noise, isn't it?
I can hear it.
This is hell, love.
Just another part of life,
and death, I suppose.
It's all a circle anyway.
This is where we learned
to spell hell with three letters.
Remember that, dear,
remember that.