Larks

by Megan Spreadbury

your words shattered through me

glass on concrete

pavement so cold

my soul lost all hope

shrouded in the dark

eerie echoing sound of larks

lingering in the corner of my mind

while time raced

and hearts paced

back and forth for hours

turning those words sour

my stomach lurched

as brown feathers perched

on stolen wood painted red

feathers fanning the dreaded

circumference of tethered

hope paving solitude

in murky swoops

while my body ached

drowning in the forsaken lake

you mistook as fate

when they called too late

its feathers fell

in rings around

pools of snow

melting in the glow

of morning sun

glinting off of what we’ve become