Light. Once there was light. Voices. Once, before the dawn.

And love (oh, that too?), but then there were lies, and that wasn’t the same, only a facsimile

STOP.

At the same time as my heart stopped beating

In the exact moment the clock struck midnight

And my jeweled slipper came off

-

“So, I guess I’m not a princess, anymore.”

“Are you kidding? When were you ever?”

-

Never certainties, always the half truths

Your soft whispery lies that fall like wet snow on my skin and stay there

That mold my heart into a shattered, swollen- nothing.

STOP.

Birds are flying in circular patterns, unable to find north

I hear their calling, see their wheeling shapes

The sun is sharp and cruel, the day is cold

I don’t want you.

-

Feathers brushing through the branches of pines

Downy soft but insubstantial

I am standing on the edge of the canyon in my boots, my feet crunching down snow,

And I shout

All I hear is echoing nothing, nothing, nothing

…nothing

nothing.

No one here but me.

-

I was crying, but no one noticed

I was hurting, but I didn’t want you to see

So I froze my tears into diamonds

And I put on my heels and my game face, and I went out to the ball