On the night she killed Ryan,
She sat in front of the mirror,
Repeating the word,
“Monster, monster.”
Ryan had always
Been by her side,
When her heart
Had been shattered in
A million pieces and cast
Aside into the whipping wind,
He collected it,
Piece by piece
And glued it back together.
She should have seen it.
The gun had bloomed
Before him
Like a rose
As he cried out
To the moon,
But she couldn’t hear.
His words wouldn’t
Penetrate her deaf ears.
His heart deep
Like the ocean
Was receding,
Steadily retreating.
Until all was still.
But the calm
Always comes
Before the storm,
Which ripped through him
Like New Orleans,
And Louisiana wept.
He swallowed his pride
With a bullet
And she never knew why
But, God she should have.
And the monster
In the mirror
Was ugly,
Her fangs dripped
With blood
Her murdering hands
Couldn’t wash away
His DNA.
The foul taste
Of helplessness
Lingered
On her tongue
Her heavy eyes
Unmasked the lies
She told herself.
The word “Emily”
Was written across
His body,
But she had been
Too blind
To see,
So he wrote it
On paper.
“Dear Emily,
I love you,
Goodbye.”
And laid it
On the desk
Which he painted red
A heartbeat later.
And the monster
In the mirror
Howled like a dog
To the moon
Ryan had once
Cried to.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem