Atropos

Prose from SHS.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash, edited by Slaidey Valheim.

The deed of severing was never so easy
as when he held the string in front of me
with a weak smile, sure hands,
and the guarantee it was the right thing;
the best thing for him.

I snipped willfully,
filled with a sense of purpose and healing,
until he bade me
do it alone.

He wouldn’t stir from the long corner of the room
at the mention, shouldn’t we message them back?
They just want to know if you’re okay.
They’ll pry more, if they’re left hanging for days…

Then message them, already.
Make something up.
Tell them we’re great.
Because we are.

I cut all the ties he asked of me,
not realizing I’d savaged all my strings as well.

Thanks for reading! If you like my style of prose, please make sure you follow the Bits & Bones publication, where I’ll be dropping short speculative non-fiction Mondays and Wednesdays!

This excerpt is one of many that I’ll be posting to Medium from the collection Strangling Heartstrings (a memoir in prose).

If you’d like to get your hands on a copy (featuring more stories exclusive to the ebook) you can get it on Amazon or download it from my Patreon (Skull+ tier, along with many other creative goodies).