my lady of malady

So long as you think you are content I watch you take the old rope in your hand, the wilted fabric some of it turning to dust in your palm, you wrap it around your milky white neck and beg of me to make a noose. Contently I do so. When it's just the right fit I tell you it looks good on you what a fine necklace you've adorned. You smile. I return the favor and kick out the chair your feet once found home. Your weight is taken by gravity and all the math is right just the right length to snap your neck but leave you enough time to struggle, to choke. You kick frantically swaying back and forth the wood creaking from your mass like some sick clock I watch you jig. Still smiling, the smallest bit of your scarlet insides running down your chin your eyes hued gray like a misty fog in some lake you may have swam in. So beautiful. You look happier than you've ever been here and now. I'm just a carpenter handing out nooses to hang all your worries on....