they're faded now
red crosses and red lines
like traffic lights guiding the drivers
gang signs littering the skin the lights are impaled on and theyre disappearing
leaving the yellow metal a dewy gold
almost orange like the crimson never dissolves
instead it
absorbs
soaks into the fixture
mottling the cracked skin and sealing up the fine lines with microscopic lesions
turning ruby black and back to ruby and black and back to ruby and black and back to ruby
drop drop drop drop
smile and black and frown and back to ruby and black black black black black black black black black black black black
black
black
black
black
black
the lights are burned and the scars won't scar
and the skin is black and the blood is black and her body soaks in the black and she is black black black
and she doesn't know how to get the ruby back