She had held water in the palm of her hand,

Just long enough to fall into the sea of benevolence it provided-

The water perfected all of her flaws,

Hid all of her scars,

Filled all of her cracks,

Healed all of her wounds;

The water had completed her in a way she never thought

She could be filled when she was nothing but a destructive pit of fire.

The water had extinguished her anger and replaced it with tranquility,

A blissful wash of blues and greens

In her world of biting charcoals and violent ash.

Staring into this pool in her hand,

She did not notice the small leak that had sprung-

Water had begun to spill from between

​the cracks of her scorched fingers.

 

In the unseen spark of a flint and steel,

Her peace burned and left its remnants in their old haven.

She could no longer see her imperfections through other’s eyes,

But rather her own scalding view.

The purity of her scars had become something to blacken;

The cracks something to pulverize- to turn to powder,

For obliteration was the solution to all of those unfixable;

Her wounds were cauterized and stitched in

Vivid x-es, spelling the names of those she had hurt.

Her emptiness swallowed her in entirety,

Her thoughts and desires corporeal for

Just long enough to toss her onto the stone floor of her mind,

Imprisoning her in her own head.

 

The room was empty,

Except for a reflective lake of the clearest water

She had ever seen.

Laying her eyes on the wondrous sight,

Her best memories rose to the surface:

A tea party with her little sister,

Her head clumsily laying atop a thin neck

Adorned with large, plastic gems

And golden string;

A mess of pastels and pigment

Displayed in front of her,

A sheet of paper touched by the

Vibrancy of her own joy,

Flowing from her stained fingertips.

 

To escape her circumstances,

She collected this remembrance and forged it

Into a locket filled with her sister’s singed hair

And the worn nubs of colored oil

And hung the chain from her neck as encouragement

As she took her first step into the lake.

Her memories beckoned her to come further,

To eat the lovely finger sandwiches and

Stain her fingers once more.

She continued to wade into her mind’s eye

Until her auburn head sank below the surface.

The water rippled for a single second with her disappearance,

Then stilled.

 

She had escaped her world of flame,

but drowned in her deceitful tears,

the only things to give her real joy, simply to take it away.