I feel the hot breath of summer against my skin as it eases over me like an oppressive dragon; the rustle of the leaves are scratchy because the sun has dried them on the branches of their mother. There is no relief, even in the shade. But I am not stifled by the water that hangs in the air, or melted by the heated breeze; I am a stranger in my skin. It betrays me with every gasp, every whisper of a touch, every blurred landscape seen through painful windows of the mind, of every drum of the heart within the cavern. A stranger in a foreign land. A stranger betrayed. A stranger destroyed. My hand falls to the carpet of green and the tiny tips of the soldiers blades prick at my knuckles. With tired windows, I see the blinding light peaking through the brown ghosts on the limbs of their mother and I frown; I mourn the loss of these once green brothers as during the darkest days they have given me comfort. However, I can offer them little assistance; this vessel I now occupy does not listen to my biddings and I cannot reach a hand to save them.

There was a time I felt as though I belonged in my house of flesh; it was made for me and I for it. But somewhere along the way, it forgot that I was the other half and has exiled me to the mind. I watch through the red rimmed windows that were once my scope to art and beauty, but now all I see is sadness. I see the evil these hands do, these hands that once brought forth beauty now bring forth pain and suffering. I hear the tinkle of a voice that once poured out an angelic sound and that now wreaks of death. I do not know this house or its contents. I am a stranger, a prisoner, a slave. I see the one’s I once loved and they look at the me that is not me with contempt and hurt. I attempt to scream but the breath that rivals that of the summer burns their hearts.

So I am quiet.

Slowly, the days are no longer numbered and the curtains on my windows are drawn to block out even the last remnants of beauty. I do not hear the sweet music of my loved one’s, nor do I feel their gentle caresses.

I am destroyed.

Slowly.

Quietly.

I am forgotten by myself.