Clothing

She doesn’t know what happened,

He was here one second

now he’s

Orange, highlighter pink

down his arms, across his chest.

Child,

she yells.

Boy,

she screams.

To understand her proportion

to his relative sadness

she swallowed a potion.

And he decided

while she was guzzling

liquid, that none of it mattered.

How could she compete with indifference?

She wondered what it would take.

She couldn’t handle

this new improved

kind of deception.

He chokes

so she swallows for him too.

She couldn't make it up

and take in his half

at the same time.

She couldn't dance

to things he wouldn't play.

She couldn't

and that was enough.

So she placed the glass

on the granite counter,

and dressed herself.