Suffocating under the rhythm of your heart beat

Like drowning beneath a sea of thumping marbles.

You are the ball pit, the sand pit, without end – falling!

But who can ever stand when they are - head – over – heels – for someone –

Yes!

And you pulled me in like a rip tide, a whirl wind, a sinking pool,

Wrapped me up like pig in blanket with your tangled hair

And the salt of it stung my skin

But I felt safe, always safe,

For I saw light bulbs drum within your chest.

I thought they lit our path

But really they shone because your heart always carried separate ideas:

Flashing,

An independent mind from your own -

Blinking, blinking...

Till your perfume bottle of a mouth began to spit words that smelt like sewerage

And tasted of rot when I repeated them aloud.

 

So this is the question I am posed with:

Is this how the world ends?

When you walk and take our sunset with you,

Is this how the earth crumbles and enfolds,

Disappears within one breath?

Is this how the Tudor castles fall down,

The cathedrals from ancient Rome dissipate,

The Egyptian pyramids diminish?

Is this how history is erased?

 

Tell me,

Is this how the world ends?

How the stone statues of Buddha, the Aztecs, the Virgin Mary corrode,

How the bronze castings of Hera, Aphrodite, Artemis melt into your cold stare?

How the walls decorated with the names of war heroes collapse into your hands?

 

Is this how the world ends?

How the Great Wall of China disintegrates into the mud,

How the Taj Mahal caves in and subsides into nothingness,

How the Grand Canyon dissolves into dog piss,

How the Eiffel tower capsizes onto a sea of horrified patriot tears,

How the statue of liberty packs up her bags and runs?

 

Is this how the world ends?

Because it feels like there is gravel stuck under my skin,

Insects crawling through my haemoglobin,

Itching, scratching.

But the sensation will never leave me

Because it was never real,

Only you were.

 

So, is this how the world ends?

When you snatch the dimples from my cheeks,

The creases in my mouth,

When you rob my smile

The very soul of my reflection -

I ask,

Is this how the world ends?

 

Because it feels like the earth has become one crumpled paper ball in your bedroom bin.