Shedding

Artwork by Isabelle Lu, staff artist

(you drove too fast)

I’m shedding again

another layer

another version of

who I

once was

tug, jerk, rip, tear

twist, slash, severe, drop

now a slimy new body arises

from the chaos, details

unrefined an empty canvas that wants

to be everything but is nothing

a layer of dead skin is on the floor.

how could you abandon me for them

Sorry

I left you behind

silently on the ground, a lifeless snakeskin

that somehow still breathes.

I see the train of time

chugging along, leaving me behind

in the trail of my own memories; why did it have to end like this?

I wonder. I look out the the rearview, and

his eyes meet mine.

His eyes meet mine.

In them, I see the life fading away slowly.

In them, there is only emptiness.

I turn the corner

as he fades out of view.