it swells, heavy,
expanding and stretching and overwhelming
threatens to break
this porcelain rib cage, the only
shield
between life and the world
fragments scatter
ice sharp and cold,
black angry gashes seeping,
spoiling the smooth, the white.
glass eyes, empty
emotion dribbles out
the last sad dregs
flat and tasting of silence
dusty flakes of nostalgia
creeping in every joint and tear
little clouds of death
puffing up shapelessly,
capturing the essence of what was,
that it no longer is
round red cheeks, shallow
brick red, void of all breath
or blood.
