She Said

she said she wanted to die in my arms

and I flinched.

like a scrape to the skin. a paper cut, maybe.

just a tinge of pain.

It was quick and it was fleeting.

But, it was there.

I never said I was a runner.

But, I am.

Random women, in random beds

they healed the scrape to my skin

soothed my soul and my mind

Endless bottle and endless lines

they made her fade away.

blurred out the look on her face and

the sound of her voice

as she lulled me to sleep.

She wasn’t mine

so I replaced her

over and over and over again

until it aches inside and my ribs cracked

open and exposed.

but, I held it in and ran faster, harder.

until there was nothing left inside of me

but a hollow moment and her eyes