Hanged
© 2003 Black Tangled Heart

I dreamt of you last night, broken fragments

of colour and pain

Lashing my consciousness

Your eyes open, unseeing, vacant (accusing)

My hand pressed in desperation against

Your clammy cheekbone, seeing no scars or haemoglobin

Upon your body, only lifeless vision

(I hold your limp wrist, feeling

hot tears saturate me)

Accusation placed upon my back

Thick bristles of a noose tearing at my neck

Your existence has ended (bloodless pallor, frigid hands

Dry mouth, the same mouth that kissed me,

though no one will believe

The truth)

Those who need a scapegoat capture

me

I do not fight, despite my innocence

I will die for you, even if it is you

Who killed me, forcing

me to live as an empty

Shell (void of blood, breath, passion

Filled only by misery and indifference)

Trying to drown your memory in tears as the rope

Tightens, slicing my breath like a sharp razor's caress

(it encircles your throat - a serpent

venom tongue, beady eyes, lashing

darkly)

I try to scream, I try to tell you

I am guiltless, but my pain falls on deaf ears

(having lain stiff and cold in my throat)

My tormenters still seek to destroy my soul

Before choking

(the breath out of) me

I close my eyes, pained breath burns my chest

You are my lifeless apathy, my accusing Romeo

My acrimony, my hanged man.

I jump.