Dearest Stranger,
I have a good feeling about this rhythm. Do you?
Let’s continue.
I'm breathless. There's much to do. Day breaks, and I find myself telling you about Her. Fury burns your cheeks. You crack open her eye. She wails with a giant creak. I whisper to her when you're out of reach. I murmur, I love you. She asks if she means 'me'.
6 days before we're supposed to move. My body feels heavy. I stare at her standing still. Will her to move. She doesn't. I ask her about what she saw. She doesn't say a thing.
Wake up, I beg her, Wake up you're gone. She breathes. Everything inflates, the wood starts to bloat, and the windows brace themselves. Summer, I feel him. Summer is here.
I empty her out like a surgeon. I gut the organs into tiny pieces. The lungs and heart work their time. I punch the liver into a garbage bag. You watch idly, you tell me you love her. I tell you I don't. At night, when you leave, I wear my shirt 30 minutes after stillness. I think you're asleep. Sweat makes the shirt cling to my back. I ask her if she believes me. She folds back. The walls shrivel.
I rise as dawn breaks. The curtains colour dully. I watch her change in the light. You stay cross and grieving. I'm looking for joy in her. The little bit of it that tells me I survived. You touch the door frames, and tell her that I'll miss you. I tell you I won't.
I snap pictures of her. I ask her to let me stay. You slip into my worship. It's time to let go or it's time to dig a grave. I crush her teeth into white powder. I melt the skin and render the fat. I eat her pancreas and leave the guts for cats. I wait to consume all of her. But she never ends. She never ends.
Consider subscribing for pretty essays that annotate life, catch up on books, and live today, again and again.