Unintended Betrayal

A Poem by Melissa Kester

Ashes of a long dead fire
Lay bare at my feet
Rustling in the wind
Dusting the barren earth
And among this lonely pyre
There still remains a heat
In this, I don't rescind
My heart has met with dearth

I aspire to achieve
While you are content
To waste away in your swill

Silence remains between us
Even though our words
Speak more than their fill

Distance is not measured
By mere feet or miles
For no space is between us
Yet I've never seen you so far
Life is not tethered
By it's unending trials
We build beam after truss
And still fall under the bar

When uncertainty arises
Our souls begin to question
And the truth becomes misguided

Every twist and turn
Through every conversation
Becomes one more step to confinement

And so I ask you this
With my heart on my sleeve
And sodden with tear strung blood

Do your senses disobey you
Do you look through eyes
Full of narcissistic mud

Can you see me now
Now that I have suffered
Can you hear my screams
Through the silence of these walls
Do you remember your vow
Do you see how I am smothered
By the absence of my dreams
And the emptying of these halls

My reach has come to length
I cannot take another breath
Of bitter retribution

I will find the strength I need
To rise above your melancholy heart
And find my own absolution