Burnt + Beach

A quiet way of saying you’ve been burnt. Of telling the room you met destiny, met fate. She took your mouth in her hands, with your eyes closed, and as she drew you in for a kiss. But your eyes opened and you were left on a small rock surrounded by tiny white capped waves, off the coast of a cold beach, gray sand expanding forever. That’s what your voice sounds like in this room of acquaintances. That’s every story you share, no matter the lift of the beginning. No matter the hopefulness or joy in the story before it. You drag the room back to that beach. Make us stand ankle deep in the cold water, let us stand, listening, wondering if we will grow more numb. Forcing us to see you waving from your rock, shouting over what should be a calming clap of the tide. The water, climbs up our pant legs, makes the little unshaven hairs on our calves dance and sway or are they trying to escape. Everyone is holding a picnic basket where they’ve shuddered their compassion, next to blue plaid napkins and a seltzer water. We see the clouds rolling forward in slow motion over the waves. The water reaches our knees and unaware we shiver through the drone of your voice. Someone on the left side is trying to talk but as they try to say a name their teeth turn to sand, spitting, their neck snaps and with a sploosh they are under the water, gone. You are point from your rock, gnashing your fangs, tearing at your shirt, showing the sky the marks of life across your back, old white washed trails of where lighting struck you. We sit and watch your reveal, the water carrying out our picnic baskets, bobbing off, while the waves tease at our chests, knocking on our lungs saying let me in let me in. Then you realize. We see your face, the look of an animal who realizes they are out classed and in over their head. The rock is almost entirely gone, consumed back to the ocean. The clouds have beckoned a drizzle. We watch you process and see your conclusion that fate has again made a fool of you. You sit with us and close your eyes as a wave crashes over you and you vanish.