Ascension
© 2003 Black Tangled Heart

She lies beneath the thick puce eiderdown, shivering

Staring with vacant irises (they're dead now, they sparkled

once)

at the mirror above her head

A stranger's eyes burn into hers

Limp chestnut hair hangs across protruding cheekbones,

(those tresses looked so pretty in her

glossy graduation photos, she was

smiling then in her lilac taffeta dress

with that brooding guitar player on her arm

and now she lies,

dressed in white

a starving cherub on her deathbed)

The doctor with his toneless voice has left

(his words still ring in her ears

"You're dying, Chelsea.")

Empty stomach distended, tissue dissolving from within

weak heart

Stutters in the confines of her brittle chest,

trying to scream,

(silenced quickly like the swipe of a fresh

razor blaze

sinful blood kisses from its metal mouth)

Smothered by the cruel laughter and sharp fingers

Of malnourishment, showing (deftly) in her

Clearly visible hipbones and ribcage

The heart monitor pulsates slowly, its incessant

Voice grates her nerves

She lifts a frail wrist, studying the crimson lines crisscrossing

(In perfect symmetry) from cracked palm to bruised elbow

She sees the golden band glinting beneath

Fluorescent light

(she remembers how he proposed -

the air was thick with honeysuckle's breath

and the way the tears danced joyously

down her face)

Does she want to die? To leave him, to leave

Every sunbeam and storm?

(laid in a coffin, holding fragrant blossoms

a picture of innocence, lifeless eyes hidden beneath opal lids

masking the

marred blackness inside her)

She takes a shuddering breath, hearing the doctor's voice

Blurred as medicinal smells infest her consciousness

("Another anorexia nervosa, she had

a heart attack last night, 59 pounds")

She hears footsteps down the hall, she sees

The concerned eyes of her fiancé

(she longs to feel his callused hands on her face

for him to song her one last song)

but he only kneels beside her and holds her pale hand

until there is no pulse, no pained breathing

and she is free from agony

(she still wears the engagement ring)