Pace of Only

Two beings, fixed a short distance across from each other. Gray landscape in ruins about them.

Staring at eachother, right in the still oculi, one at the other, and the other in return. Or maybe the first is returning the other’s initiative. So long it has been forgotten. They stare, motionless and still, never so much as a twitch or a sneeze.

As if holding everyall short the heavens in place.

Bodies decaying around them, not to mention the selves. Limbs tired and flabby from neglect. Muscles withered, spines hunched. Imagine the mouth must be dry. Perhaps this is the once source of movement. Drawn closed in a line, perhaps a tongue is hidden behind, slowly licking the cheek. In anticipation or thirst, no difference. It must navigate through searching for any morsel of liquid. But there won’t be any, won’t have been any in the memorable past.

They will always stare.

She sat in chair staring at the moon

She lay in the mud staring at empty sky