heavy lies the crown {colgate + hannah} blitz

Blood,

a rain that should be crimson upon torn flesh, but is instead drops of sea water on my cheek.

Blood is pain, blood is misery -

and we pour it from our broken bodies and souls.

There are no cuts marring my steel skin, no obvious chinks in my burdensome armor. And yet entire oceans tumble down my face, hurricane after hurricane. These winds licking my flesh with their dagger tongues are a pack of wolves, howling against my turned back, raking their claws down nearly every inch of me in their race to my throat.

I hear the chanting of the crowd harmonizing with the barbarous bays of the lupine winds -

"Hannah Hannah Hannah Hannah O'Leary -

kill kill kill kill her KILL HANNAH O'LEARY!"

The chorus of bloodlust in my ears grows louder with each fleeting moment. I can feel the sand pouring into the bottom of the hourglass, into the abyss of long lost time. I am running out of grains of sand to lose; the shadow of the arena draws closer and the blood as begun to boil.

I am a whirling sea of apprehension and sheer terror in this barren room; Colgate O'Leary is an avalanche through the sliding doors - tick tock tick tock ticktockticktock we are running out of time.

There are no tears this time, or screams like a blaring siren. Only us and our arms, melting into each other, and the sound of my voice, like a peel of broken bells.

"I love you, Dishrag, and nothing will ever change that, not even death. I never said it enough, when I should have said it every single day."

Silence, and I am pulling away, nearly crumbling when his warmth fades from my skin.

"Do you really think I can make it?"

i'm strong enough

to breathe air into my lungs

❧

{ table: zoë }