Sweet coffee is sipped
In the shy corner of the living room
Occasionally stopping to smile
As I reminisce on last night
Quiet messages are passed between the miles
Words for lovers' eyes only
I know not of a better way
To spend a Saturday morning
Than with this routine
We've unconsciously established

Things happen quickly
One minute, I'm alive
My body is warm
With each inhale, my chest rises
With each exhale, it falls
It continues on that way,
And I'm unaware of it,
Until a masked gunman pulls his trigger
As quickly as the sound of the bang
The colors fade from my eyesight
Everything looks stale
Heat escapes me, and my hands
Feel like static
Like those eerie TV stations that don't work
They're there, but not present
They don't reach anything
I've become aware of my body
But I can't feel it
At the same time, it's all I can feel,
Hollow
An empty room where you wonder
What's here?
What used to be here?
What is coming here?
This is the part where I shut down
Completely shut down
My only function is to
Rock myself back and forth
Not even to breathe
The control over that was killed
With the gun from earlier
Just had a slower death
They say when things are quiet enough
People are driven insane
Because all they can hear is their mind
And when I've shut out the rest of the world
Whether I mean to or not
That statement is the truth

Kiss goodbye these cold metal lips
That once showed showed us
The color red,
The liquid state,
A lesson in psychology and anatomy
That once was a friend
An answer to a question never asked
They left their kiss marks on our arms and legs
Never to be washed off
But rather than haunt us,
The markings will serve as reminders
Of the war we fought,
The hell we went through,

And survived.

Dear thunder,
If you could come here
And sing me to sleep
A lullaby of a hundred lions
I would no longer miss you so sorely

Surround me with your echoes
Run farther away, but come back stronger
Bring along your light show
Bring along the summer
Because I'm ready to sleep

You say it kills you
But don't think for one second
That it doesn't **** me too

It wrapped itself around me when the lights went out
And took my form, all my shapes
The way you did

It protected me from any monsters below
And made everything safe and sound
The way you did

It kept me warm when the cold air got me
It listened to my screams of angst
It caught me when I fell down
And never failed to abide this calling

Just the way you did

When you were away
I lay my tired body on half the bed
Going through this whole cycle
Wondering if you too were being
Warmed,
Guarded,
Comforted.

This down feather blanket isn't you
It is a new friend
My friend
No one else's

The way you said
You were no one else's