Author S. K. Nicholas

Sea urchins wail behind her eyelids and as the bullet slides down her throat and hits her whiskey belly, I part her legs and sing to where I came from. There are so many untold mountains, some underwater, and some tucked behind her restless ribcage. We sink beneath the waves. We fall through the floor and surrender to the forces that guide our feeble hands. Such delicate flesh that tastes so nice, but the older we get, the more it decays until there’s nothing left but necrosis. Photographs of those we loved so dearly now merely the faithful departed. It’s a sad state of affairs, and when the wind ruffles my hair as I walk the deserted streets, it makes me want to break down and cry. All those lives; those memories of tenderness crushed beneath the weight of existence. Those embraces in places long since faded and drowned defused passion. We’re made to walk the line, only to realise when it’s too late there was never any point. There’s no point to any of this. Time is a heartbeat away from ending, but the games we play cover our tracks and it’s only when we’re on our backs looking up at the stars we come to understand where we came from and where we’re heading once again. Blinking away the rain that rolls into my eyes, the fresh air hurts my lungs and causes me to wretch. It feels like I’m the only one, for when I look into the eyes of those that pass me by I see nothing there at all. Prudence, dear Prudence, I know she’s out there waiting for me. Such finely tuned features not even God himself could have sculptured. With a smile so sincere, it reminds me of all those rivers that flow around the sun to the ice cubes that cracked in glasses of lemonade on endless summer holidays in my grandparents garden. From the wings of bees to the glisten of tiger teeth through blades of grass as tall as palm trees. From the streets of Prague to sheets of blotting paper in diaries unwritten for the best part of a decade. This is how we are, and as you fall asleep in the back of a taxi cruising roads unknown, this is how it will always be until the day finally comes to say goodbye.