Glass By Penny Hill

It was the way she stumbled through the door
The redness of her hazy eyes,
The thinness of her voice
slurring sounds that made no sense
Each sentence cracking like her knocked-over glass
Whose spilled remnants stained the carpet with lies

It was when she didn’t answer my calls, my messages
When I stayed awake waiting
When my promise to myself that it all would be okay
Shattered inside of me before it could leave my mouth
And shards scraped my throat as I swallowed

It was how she fell into the arms of the tall silhouette
How he pulled her too close to him
Entwining their torsos
Forming a single shadow in the moonlight

It was how I watched from the corner
How my eyes begging for sleep couldn’t blink
Tangled strings of words wrapped around my neck
And sewed my lips closed

It was when I tore open the seams
As boiling anger burst from my mouth
When I ran without looking back
In search of the time
When I never questioned his trust in her

It was how I scolded her with silence
How I held grudge between his teeth

But she was wide-eyed, clueless, and
Sorry for what she had done
Though she could not recall what that was

It was the way I woke in the mornings
With engraved memories haunting my mind

It was the way she woke up hung-over in the late afternoons
With blurry flashbacks of the night before

For me, each memory is a blade of betrayal
which carved wounds of sorrow
only now beginning to heal with each sunrise, each tomorrow

Disappointment became forgiveness
As another sun set in the west
Still, broken glass cannot be un-shattered
I forgave her but I will never forget