Handshakes With Deceit Poem by Tyler Chambers

She sips from the hollowed out skulls of her past mistakes.
To learn something. Anything.
To take it all in.
If re-examination is the key, and self-correction the result, what of the victim?

The offenses: disastrous to the other party.
One small decision can be unquestionably destructive to a companion.
Excessive repetition equals inevitable relapse.

And when that happens,

Hundreds and hundreds of regrets will compile in the fashion of an ever expanding sea.
The attempt to reach shore is foolish.
Miles and miles of nothing will confirm the magnitude of separation from safety.

Her body will lie at the bed of the ocean.
Her soul?

Much deeper.