Her Poem by Danielle Kieschnick

She stumbles out of the crowded bar
And into the crisp night air.
Drowning her sorrows? No.
She cannot drown them, only dull their screams
Into haunting whispers for a while.
But she knows, even as the blood runs slow and thick,
Even as her body is filled with warm, numbing poison,
That the heat and quiet will die away
Before she reaches home.

But she stumbles along, the world tipped sideways,
The galaxy lights and city stars
Guiding her to the solace she suddenly craves
After another night of seeking love
And coming back empty handed.
The city pipes groan in protest of the nauseous heat
That crawls around within them
And out into the polluted sky.

Thousands of building eyes
Squint and stare at her silently,
Their windows turned lifelike and strange
By the streetlamps and signs.
But she drags herself past them, heedless of their warnings,
So eager to be away from the world
That she knows nothing but the trail of sidewalk
That will lead her there;
Back to her silence
And sadness.

She finds no answers;
Only the city's smoky indifference
And a heart that is slowly realizing all over again
Just how much it aches.

Her soul unfurls into the nighttime sky,
High enough to escape the smothering city.
It floats up into the atmosphere,
Reaching toward the gleaming stars in thin, needy tendrils.
Up, up
Where there is only silent space.
And, like smoke, it slowly fades away.