She stares at the void

asking the silence,

“how in the world?”

 

How in the world
do I … ?
but her voice trails into nothingness.
Fighting against the muscles
drawn tightly across her breasts
she struggles to inhale.

Snapshot images
from the past year and half
flood her tear-blurred eyes.
Happier moments burst like
bubbles settling on prickly grass.
How in the world?

Who was right and who was wrong
hardly matter to her.

In the wake of five minutes,
maybe ten,
that changed everything,
the life she’d been trying so hard to build
evaporated.
How in the world?

The basics of sleeping and eating,
now impossible,
are luxuries she only remembers
as distant memories.
She knows she needs rest;
she has for a long time now and
not eating will take its toll,
but how in the world?

Tomorrow, the sun will rise.
She will be there to greet it,
likely having waited for it for hours,
and rise up, struggling though she may,
to make a single cup of coffee
and the slice of toast she won’t
know how to eat.

 

Relephant:

In the Midst of a Break-up: A Tale of Letting Go.

 

Author: Mk Michaels

Editor: Khara-Jade Warren/ Alli Sarazen

Photo: Holly Lay/ Flickr