Awoken

Darkness has hung his heavy cloak outside my room.

And suddenly, as if the Moon tossed a piece of herself at my window to wake me,
I jerk upright, sticky sweat plastering hair to neck and face, trembling fingers massaging swollen eyes.

This nightmare could not have been more hopeless.

In a long, white lace gown, I stand at the back of the church.
Grief's salty tears rolling soundlessly down my flushed cheeks.
I clutch my breath inside my constricted lungs and watch you and her at the altar.

I am frozen, unable to flee the church, nor am I able to disrupt the ceremony and protest that your vows can't be for forever, that I am meant to be on that altar someday, that this can't be how the story ends!

Eventually, I accept that my attempts are futile, and I lean against the clean, white wooden walls of this church and watch you decide to begin a life without me in it.

The tears fall. They soak my lace and the red velvet under my feet.
And I weep until the Moon takes notice and wakes me.