Sideways Eight

By: Hayley Allison

Our love was born out of infinity,
Full of promises and late-night murmurings.
We chased each other around and around the loops of our symbol,
Never ceasing to catch our breath,
Never stopping to let our minds catch up with our words.
We were invincible in the other’s eyes,
Powerful and fearless, admired with a star-struck gaze that reflected our own little world.
I only realized just how wrong we were as the months passed on by
And I spent more time covering the yellow and purple bruises than I did with you.
The same lips you kissed before were the same ones you split open on your bad nights,
Yet before I could wash out the blood stains you would be there to remind me
That we still had our infinity,
We still had our pinky promises and tales of the future
We still had our memories of laying under the stars and opening our hearts,
We still had each other to fight back the skeletons that hid in our closets,
We still had one another.

But how could you protect me from yourself?
The skeletons that haunt me now are more than bone,
More than the flesh that I glimpse in hallways and in old picture frames.

I broke our infinity,
Shattered it into two rings,
And I hope that you can find someone to give yours to.