Horizontal Slashes

They lay in a jagged row

Three horizontal slashes

That have long since faded

From black, to blue, to the palest pink

Now almost unnoticeable against his skin

Smudges to forever mark the darkest days

The seemingly unending nights that latched

Too tightly around his neck and clung for dear life

Afraid to let him go

Fingertips graze along each scar

With the forgivable hesitance

Of a girl who could never fully understand

Who has never seen the world in that particular

Shade of swirling, murky black

The kind that creeps in from behind and

Suffocates its victims in their own wallowing misery

She stares openly with wet, innocent eyes

That kind of reality far beyond comprehension

He permits the gentle probing of her gawking eyes

Knowing her reaction is unavoidable

Inside his heart has shrunken tightly within

Locking itself in its bloody cage to rot away alone

Memories from long ago threaten to swell,

Ready to overtake and consume his remaining pieces

He swallows them down, their bile flavor heavy on his tongue

And basks in the silence that has fallen

Already anticipating her likely departure

Next comes the briefest of pauses

Just long enough for his heart to skip its usual beat

The silence shattering as the girl beside him begins to stir

His curtains fall shut and wash the sight in darkness

He refuses to speak, to beg for her to stay with him despite

All the baggage that it brings

No normal person would want to deal with this kind of pain

It has happened too many times before; already he can feel

His heart beginning to crack

There is a warmth washing over his arm

Directly over the scars he wishes he had hidden better

His eyes snap open with the realization that a soft

Pair of lips is hovering over the tender spot

And kissing each and every mark

She pulls back just far enough to meet his wavering eyes

And reveal the trail of freshly brewed tears that have sprung forth

From opposite corners of her eyes, her voice trembling as she whispers

“I’ll never give up on you, love. I’ll bring you back to life again,”

He opens his mouth as if to reply

But no articulate response comes to mind

Other girls have come and gone, each one bearing similar promises

As if, with the wave of a wand, they could erase a history

That has been engraved forever on his arm

Yet at the same time, he finds himself mesmerized by the

Grip her eyes have on his, her body trembling with

What he can only assume is a flurry of painful emotions

He wants nothing more than for her words to ring true

Though doubt still clouds the murkiness of his mind

He reaches out and pulls her closer, her head resting against

The place in his chest where a heart should be

Here and now, he already feels the frosty emptiness

Of a death that had once almost taken him

But, with the heat radiating from the girl at his side

He has to wonder if such a feat is truly possible

Maybe he can be saved; maybe it is already too late

Regardless, he will wait with her and see