Black Dress − 4 May, 2007

A black dress spun from the glossy silk of night twirls about her pale legs as she spins beneath a thick magnolia tree. Her bare feet light quick and fleeting upon the damp grass . Black hair covers her eyes, leaving only her smile peering timidly out from below. Bark digs itself into her palms as she steadies herself. A ribbon of smoke unfurls from the wet earth beside her, twisting and unraveling into the warm air. Eventually, the ember dies and the smoke dissipates.

She steps away from the tree, bracing herself against the flips her stomach is doing. She closes her eyes and wanders away from the dull ache of throbbing music. She hears footsteps on hard wood, and the murmur of foreign voices. From somewhere her name seperates itself from the noise and floats to her. She reaches the cold, rain darkened streets and turns around, laughing a laugh too big and too sad for her frame. As she raises a painted hand her delicate features are painted by blinding headlights. She has time enough to pull in a lungfull of air as tires scream fruitlessly against wet pavement. She is suddenly painful angles and billowing hair as she spins in the air, and there is a brilliant crack as her head connects with the street. A black pool spreads around her, mixing with the rain that begins to fall.

Mouths move frantically inside the growing circle of faces above her, but no words come from them. Her fingers clutch black fabric tightly between blood soaked fingers.