I stood there
In the dim lights of our den
A place once cherished
But now otherwise ignored
It had become his
Hiding place
His refuge for
When he wouldn’t speak
At those times
Like right now
I would stand there
Behind him
Delicately trailing random patterns
On his sweat-soaked tee’s back
He used to dress nicely
Plaid polos and such
But ever since she passed
He was rather shoddy in his appearance; sloppy
I could feel his body
Rise and fall
Each breath shorter and less healthy
Than the last
But I said nothing
Simply humming softly
Finally he lifted his head
His pale, pallid skull
Topped with slightly thinned
Reddish hair
It’d been so thick before
Before she passed
He turned slowly
To face me
His face was a sickly purple so unlike the warm peach
It’d been when she was alive
His lips were pale and chapped
Unlike their previous full pink
And they were shuddering violently
As he tried to speak
After another moment of silence
Eventually he did
If you’d just been
Quiet
He whispered
In a harsh, raspy voice
His now yellowed teeth that he once prided in deeply
Gleamed in the den’s faded light
If you had just
Kept your **** mouth shut
He elaborated
In a sour undertone
I felt my stomach sickening itself
But refused to show reaction to his words
If you had just been able to silence yourself for a ****** minute
She would not have died
I knew it was true
And so I did not try to stop him as he stood
He was gone within hours
To accompany her
To abandon me
The idiot that could not keep quiet
Thus now I am what you might call a
Mute
For silence is a friend
That never betrays