Off The Edge

You cup your palm

Around the last cigarette;

A flicker of fire,

Smoke curls around your eyelids.

Burnt grey air lingers around us

Tugging at the lint of our sleeves,

Filling the gap.

I'd known for months—

I had to leave.

For two years

We claimed our crooked castle,

Built on the edge of a cliff;

I chained myself inside

To keep from falling.

This time, I refused to be

Pushed.

So King and Queen we sat,

Atop rotting mesh of lies

Secrets buried beneath the rug.

For a while

I pretended I couldn't smell them.

Tonight,

We are two silhouettes

Familiar, yet empty.

I paint a picture in the charcoal sky:

Two faces staring back at us

They smile,

And we've forgotten how they feel

But we smile back.

The ember burns between us slowly

I trace the outline of the illusion

One last time.

Now, I'd fallen before-

Tricked by a hand I had trusted

A gentle shove off the side

Tumbling into suffocating black,

Alone.

This time

I jumped.