Giver and Taker
His words
slice and chop me
into a zillion
inconsequential bits
and yet, I listen,
so I don’t forget
the sound of a human voice
amid the beeping
that surrounds me
She lies there,
holding on to
the last vestiges of a non-life,
unknowing and uncaring
of the curses I rain,
me — a captive in a limbo
of shared blood
I see his anger, his pain,
I know the spell to release him
but Life taught me to fight,
every second of every day,
and habits run stronger
than want or emotion
Automaton I have become,
shuffling under
the rein of responsibility,
my love shredded to dust
in the cacophony of beeps
and the stench of phenol
A sword of pain
slices me in half,
I feel myself dissipating
in the chorus of alarms,
I hear a howl,
and…and it doesn’t come from me
Years I spent,
my life I gave away
in her care
and she rewards me
by leaving me —
bereft, rudderless…
I watch him from the heavens,
incapacitated by the possibility of choice,
and I weep,
though he lives, he dies…
