No one could hear their SOS

and no one could ever care less

of two creatures laid to rest.

Screaming.

And then...

Silence.

Rhetoric

Black hides the blue. A man ruins a woman ruining a man, as we all sit in circles and feed names to secret eyes, in the hope that we see sacred songs in the mirror before we sleep at night.

Post

"You should see the way this girl talks."

"What's there to see?"

"It's a spectacle."

"Don't think I need a girl to enjoy a spectacle."

"But these performances are ruthless."

"Stop walking around the fire, will you?"

"It's what she says. It's her words. They're like knives."

"Am I supposed to be intimidated? That's not an entirely unsavoury situation for me."

"But she's unlike anything you've ever thrown yourself into. This isn't some sugar-honey whose skin you can crawl under and then charm your way out of. She means business."

"....Okay."

"Imagine you walk in, and you're a solid block of wood. By the time she's done, you're left carved out, like some abstract piece of modern art."

"Modern art's such bullshit."

"And that's exactly how she'll leave you feeling."

"...Sure. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

"Don't take this lightly, man. I'd never kid you about it. She'll make you wish you were in a tank of piranhas, anything just to be away from her."

"I've had enough of this."

"Suit yourself..."

-

She was something else. Black single-shouldered maxi dress, velvet, worn under short-cropped hair. She sat there, smoking a cigarette in its holder. Classy, like some bombshell. Straight from a 30's film noir. Not in the mood to socialize, he didn't think of anything to say, but took the vacant stool beside her, and waited for the barman's attention. He thought he felt her eyes on him, but put it down to paranoia. Goddamnit, he thought, why has that bullshit warning left me so unnerved? He pushed aside the thought, and asked the waiting barman for a gin and tonic.

"Gin and tonic? What are you, a girl?"

He tipped the waiter and sat staring into his glass.

"Gets a girl's drink, and can't even have it."

Ignore it, he told himself, and took a swig of his gin.

"Just as well. Not like you have balls."

"I want a divorce."

-

Finally. He was crawling out of the chrysalis. She would save him soon enough.

Debutante

She took hold of my arm in the middle of a busy street, only to tell me I didn't have to stop wearing my cologne simply because she had left. I looked this stranger in the eye, and without a glaze of passing recognition, mumbled a thank you. I didn't know what else to say.

-

Remember those nights?

What nights?

You knowwwww. Stop teasing me.

I know a lot of nights. I don't know which nights you know, and which you don't.

The park. The lake. Late sunrises, Early sunsets. We'd start our fires when the sun left its office, and hide them when it walked back in.

Hmm. We were so young.

We were so young. And we both spoke 5 languages to strangers, but only one in common.

And we'd make friends...

You mean you'd make friends.

Well, it was us by the lake.

Yes. But you did the making, be honest. I just helped with the keeping.

Hmm.

But anyways. We'd join the stars with lines, like dots in a child's playbook. Our shapes always cut each other. You'd see a bear, I'd see a teapot. And we'd pretend the trees spoke to us. And we'd give them names, and

Yes, yes. What about those days?

.....I wish you still loved me.

I do.

Not like that.

Yes. not like that.

Then how?

I don't know.

Tell me when you do.

-

I didn't know how. So I never told her. She tired of waiting for an answer, and decided to go looking for it.

-

I know now what that love is like. You've shown me what it's like. I wish you could come back now, so I could tell you.