With thudding, laden steps, she heaved each door shut and bolted them; nothing left to flash before her eyes.

He relaxed against the doorframe, sighing into its sunlit depths; afraid to muddy it with his calloused hands.

She flung them all open, sunsets and sunrises cascading from each doorway; her laughter an immortal chime.

Slamming it shut, he fell to his knees, forehead pressed against the worn wood; some doors should remain closed.

His studious pacing counted the polished doors, opened and closed on command; never any dust to linger.

Tiptoe steps led her to starlit skies, ignoring doors creaking open at the corner of her eyes; don't look, don't remember.

He strolled, chuckling and patting each doorframe like an old friend on the back; a life lived he couldn't regret.

Prying the door open, hands bloodied and scarred, she stared into the void; embracing the pain that made her whole.

Flames licked at her heels, doors flaming and falling to ash revealing steel bones; no danger of rose colored glasses.

Rippling tide tickled in

Foaming cream embellished

frothing the creature

embraced within

curiosity piloted me

toward sodden shape

kissed by eddies

bathed by ocean tears

dusted with cinnamon sand

bedecked by sea creatures

flecks of sea worn shells

I extended my hand

to brush off the grains

recoiled in horror

threw caution to wind

excised the seaweed

sheltering her nose

pale lifeless eyes

resigned to fate

abandoning life

fearing its pursuit

too titanic to swim

through her misery

tide flowed out

taking the flotsam

the dregs of her life

leaving no traces.

I wondered with pain

if she had drowned

but my pith

sank with certainty

suicide with the tide.

#suicide #SoddenShape #Challenge #StrongPoem