she kneels
crumples
withers
before the fickle mirror of truth
and lies

she reaches out
with trembling hand,
and bleeding heart,
to touch
the laughing skeleton
reflected within the
glass

and she smiles

her cheeks stretch thin
sunken hollows of
forgotten regrets
the color of
concrete tears

and the skeleton laughs
with her
at her
the laughter rattles
through her spine
it tastes of bitter
crying loneliness

shadows lick at her
sad stick shoulders
numbing her
trapping her
the self-disgust feeds on
her heart
mind
body
it crows in triumph

she blinks her eyes
cold slate blue
they close
they open

they change

the skeleton grows
it swells it explodes
til it grins back at her
grotesque and misshapen and

Fat

she cringes away

tears fall they shatter
and drain away
away away
into the ground

the plate of food falls
forgotten
from numb sad fingers
brittle
like broken promises
and broken dreams

her dream her quest her need
her Fate

it never ends