7. Beautiful

 

Beauty is hollow. So vapid and transient and – so comforting, even as it takes everything from you. Beauty is a drug; I am a junkie.

 

The reflection shows a gorgeous blonde, the flower of healthy maturity just beginning to fade. Immaculate makeup shades away the lines of worry and creams refresh the sinking skin; the highest fashion soothes away all imperfections with the promise of eternal wealth.

 

How superficial this guise is, no matter how fine. No matter how hard I try – all unravels in time.

 

And no matter how beautiful, my heart dies because it will never be real.

 

 

8. Red Wine

 

He hated alcohol. The smell – fading roses and blood, medicinal yet instinctively whorish – made pictures of death in his head. Of something skinned and dripping ichor as it spun terminal circles, hanging from the ceiling by a strech of wire.

 

But even his hatred bowed down before his love. Then, when night-warmed lips turned on him, and the taste of sweet vintage mixed with gentled kisses, he had very little time for partiality. Dances of tongue, teeth and soul consumed his world, and the horror of the past gave way to the pleasure of the present.

 

He loved red wine.

 

 

9. In the Moonlight

 

I wonder what you are doing right now, brother.

 

You’re so distant from me, so closed off. It used to be I could see out of your eyes, feel your pain and know your joy. Now there is nothing in you for me. Would I even know it if you died tonight?

 

There’s a soft bed behind me, and even a body to temporarily divert my lonliness with. But all I can think of at this moment is my sorrow. Our sorrow. Give up this stubborn crusade, if only for my sake; I’ll still love you.

 

Come back to me…brother.

 

 

10. Broken Coins

 

I see you standing at the window, staring out past the sky. Your lips move in the silvered night, your eyes shining like haunted twin stars.

 

Twin.

 

It’s obvious that you’re thinking of him. Why shouldn’t you? You adore him, and you feel so wrong because he isn’t here. I know the general idea. You’re like two halves of a broken coin, each so much nothing without the other. And when you’re together, you have the entire world. You’ll be so happy once you have him again, and I want you to be happy…

 

But where does that leave me?