She hands it over like a token on a string
That one promise that is cracked
Before it’s even made
It’s only a matter of time before it fractures

I can see it happening, all to painfully clear
Her soft, hardened face
Puffing and blowing out cancerous smoke
Just as the tar fills and clings to her lungs
The blackness billows all over my battered heart

She tries to ease the blows with empty words
I stopped listening
If she won’t hear, why should I?

Still my mind is haunted and abused by these images
Drowning herself in a blissful affliction of booze
She pours poison down her throat while
Dread fills up my stomach with cold stones

Chain reactions shattering and imploding the scene
Bottles and tattered lives all strewn about
Broken hearts litter the ground
Slicing the tired feet of those who must walk it
Somehow we still manage to march onward

Words fly about the air like knives
Slashing and hacking down unsteady esteems
Leaving both victim and assailant scarred

Tears are falling over the brokenness
As if to feebly wash away the wrecked remnants

But my tears are just saltwater
Meaningless to the whole and
While my pain is visible, a collection of stained glass
She masks hers in a shade of malignant regrets

It’s a hopeless circle, no end and no beginning
One thing leading to another
It’s a puzzle missing too many pieces
The full picture can no longer be seen
Only snippets give glimpse to our minds

So while she plunges into obliterate thoughts
Untangling my reflections is a stymie
This deadly ignorance that prey’s on one’s hurt must stop
I must move on, but I can’t
I’m waiting until she is free of this ball and chain