She Counts Her Last Blessings
Her fingers entwined within a necklace of pearls,
she closes her amber eyes and counts her last blessings.
Her eyelids tighten, the pearls slither through her slender fingers,
but she does not frown, for she cannot be weak.
She must not.
But there is a whimper,
then a stinging sensation underneath her pale eyelids.
The mascara falls as her flushed cheeks become a river of diluted black.
Tears are made from weakness; she knows that.
The pearls are released and dangle from her neck
and as her eyes see light once more,
her last blessings dither until they are nothing but
fragments of her imagination, rolled into a flurry of emotion.
A collection of what once mattered.
Blood red wines, precious gems, exotic wonders.
Perfection:
a lie that poisons every layer of her paper-thin skin.
She can hear him coming, and soon, she is bandaged in his arms,
but they do not fix her. Nothing can fix her.
She is broken.
He must be rid of her - she cannot produce what he wants.
What man wants a womb that is tainted?
A womb that is swollen, that swallows her sanity.
She counts her last blessings, but still ceases to understand.
Why does he not free himself from the burden?
From her?
She feels his heartbeat against her hard spine, but she does not flinch,
even when her eyes gaze upon a silver jewel in his strong hands
because she does not want jewels, or glistening finery.
She wants what wealth cannot buy, the one thing she can never have.
She wants a child.
