alusdelarge

Dirt beneath his dry fingernails, hands stiff with cold settling into his bones. No shoes on wet earth. Pebbles. Broken glass. Bits of shredded paper and pocketbook scraps line the edges. Yellow to grey to white. Grey to yellow, and on it goes. Torn and drooping cloth. What barely counts for a full bodied being. Grimace. Hope. Uncertainty mirrored, droplets pooled. Tears as junk; rejected. Fortified. Dripping black lettering, graffiti against a sagging backdrop. Freezer cold breath mingles; smoke signals of winter. Shame. Grief. Soundless apology. If only. Had things been different. A future unintended. "Please spare what you can."