This is the fifth edition in my series, published in Inhale the Night, Sleeping with Earth, an eBook released by Darcia Helle and Moments at Midnight.
Find part four right here. Part one here.
Odyssey
~
Stephanie
Bled out on
The tiled floor..
They had pushed each other
On the swing years earlier…
~
Jake
Lay disfigured with
A bullet in his eyes…
Odyssey had a crush
On him before
The world spun into
chaos…
~
Jacie
Was not breathing,
And Odyssey wanted badly
to feel
something
anything for her…
~
she slowly closed
her eyes,
surrendering
to darkness…
~
her last glimpse
of incandescent light –
an endangered species
like herself.
~
“Odyssey,”
A voice said
Slowly rocking her.
“Wake up.”
~
“Mom?” she asked, her eyes adjusting to the light.
“No, my name is Doctor McCormack.”
“Are you here to arrest me?”
“No, I’m here to help you.”
“You can’t help… I had to stop him,” Odyssey told him.
“They’re calling you a hero.”
~
Odyssey reclosed her eyes.
The world was calmer without color.
She was not a hero
For stabbing a maniac –
She was only another survivor
Caught between a rock,
A hard place and
A broken game…
~
“I see you have your mother’s ring,”
McCormick said to break the silence, checking on her medication.
“It’s become something of a legend in the ICU.”
~
She hadn’t noticed, slipping it back on
Before she lost consciousness.
The ring had passed between
Three lives, two of which were gone –
If only Journey could have shared it with her.
~
“She would have had your eyes, you know,”
McCormick said.
“How did you?”
“I was going to deliver her.
But you know, she
Stays alive in you.
So, she’s never really gone.”
~
Somehow, Odyssey smiled
At the thought of them
Together –
Jumping ropes,
Destroying the patriarchy –
~
“Life goes on,” she mused.
And if not –
She’d sure as hell leave Death
With a black eye
And stitches.
~
© Ben Ditmars 2021
~
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The Midnight Writer 