the foreigner

I had softly slipped out of everyone around me’s lives in the night, like a cool whispering breeze.

A hovering murmur that was so quiet, nobody had the worry to turn their heads, just in case

They really did hear something.

No,

they half-consciously thought,

and they continued on.

And I drifted away, floating above everyone around me.

My eyes were the color of char.

My chin dripped ashes into my shaking hands.

My pain never falters and never leaves me.

After witnessing the faltering of humanity,

I start to trust what hurts me more than what doesn’t.

This morning,

As I put on my tie and got ready for work,

I glanced in my bathroom mirror.

My green skin peered back at me, disappointed in it’s blind, glossy eyes.

Was it I or was it them that is to blame for this atrocity inside me?