Last Dance

He stands there waiting, cloaked in black

Like the darkness of the night illuminated by the fog of the moon

His hands are white and steady, reaching toward hers

Shaking, a boney remnant of what love used to hold.

She looks at his face, frozen in time, defying nature’s laws

Like a clock that’s wound backwards ticking furiously into the past

His eyes hold the pain of every second that lay before her

Like a cathartic reassuring nightmare that powers her muscles.

The shaking stops as confidence creeps through her blood

As she reaches for her new friends timeless hand

A hand that has held millions before hers

She pauses right before his fingertips fill her clammy palms

She is no longer afraid of the stranger standing before her

A distant friend she’s known her whole life through

Dancing around in a ballroom of magnets

Constantly pulling and repelling with every step.

She closes her eyes and lets the darkness fully consume her

Releasing the wolf that has been caged inside

Scratching and clawing at her organs begging for freedom

Like she silently begs for a moment of stillness.

Her muscles grow heavy as they close the final gap between them

His cold lifeless hands merging with the warm rush of her blood

As they grasp each other and she plummets into eternity.

An Eternity. Of darkness. Of light. Forgiveness and defeat.

Her heart slows as she lets him lead in this final waltz

Her feet failing her now as she clumsily tries to follow in step

Her thoughts are frozen, emotionless, like the glass she used to walk on

Breaking and shattering no more underneath the weight that she carried.

The room fades to grey like the ashes of a burnt out fire

The final molecule of oxygen sprinting from her lips

As the trailing notes of her swan song hang lurking in the air

With her final bow, the end of her last dance.