There was a certain softness to this,
a certain joy at holding close
Yet all of her joy
dropped
like tiny pellets of glass
She found the images hardest to ignore,
silly text messages,
'Oh, look at them'
'They're so cute'
'Oh, they broke up?'
'That's a shame'
She sighed,
the images floated through her mind,
they were worse than the texts from others,
worse than the images posted online,
because they grew within her
She stared at the last image
that she had of him,
It was the last hold out
on her phone,
and yet she couldn't delete it
It reminded her of him,
his smiled adorned the image,
it was nearly whimsical
He had laughed just moments before,
those had always been her favorite pictures,
she'd told him so,
so very long ago,
heard his pleasant teasing,
because even then, she knew that he wasn't being mean
She missed those playful remarks
she missed the sad smiles
from nights that stretched too long
and the gentle whisper of soft breath
on even softer skin
She wondered if he knew the power of every kiss,
the continual quaking of her knees
Yet she knew of their last argument together,
the harsh almost revulsion,
the ache of saying goodbye
Alice missed him
even among lies of doubt
She stared delicately at the picture,
seeing the memory continue through her mind
and hearing the sudden gasp of love
that never truly died.