His name stuck
stubbornly clinging to the jagged edge
of locked jaw.
Her eyes retreated to the back of her head
drowned in a pool of blood
Memories swayed her in and out of consciousness
as the paintings with lost smiles absently stared.
He thought he was clenching the fist of a man...

I heard the little boy behind the man
when he said love should be like this.
But all sense was stripped
from a mind soaked in pain
Eyes bulging with pride and fists
dripping blood.

She watched him become a stranger
Heard every footstep fade into a distant memory
as she lied there swallowing his battered words
wishing life didn't have a present like this-
wishing the future would look past her.

"She couldn't say who it was,
  all I could hear was it's someone she once knew."