Light lingers past dinner
The vacation we took
Just the three of us

He did not come
I did not ask why

For the next little while
don’t look for me

I will be hidden on the edges
and I will be my own secret

That voice
Steals quietly up my spine
And curls itself around my heart

A purring kitten
And all I can remember are the claws

My shadow self 
wears a dark gray trench coat 
and a brown fedora
Walks directly into the sun
towards on-coming traffic
Confident in her invisibility

I will make peace
with the permanence of change

I will say goodbye
to everything

A place of small horrors
And many quiet deaths
All I want to take with me
Is what was mine when I first came

“Tell us when you’re asleep”
he whispers

Hearing no answer
he gives us a nod

And we descend like vultures
on a still, warm body

Her grief was a cotton filled box
and she
curled up tight
fit perfectly

The fanged spider of rage
sneaks up her back,
tickling like a naughty lover,
and whispers in her ear

“Trust me.”

And she does.