The flames, not so bright, had lost all their mare. Brittle seams of smoke and ash drifted in the air. Passing by the townspeople, happy and unaware. All, they thought, was fair.

The flames, not so bright, had sifted through the cold. They were to never come back, is what the children were told. Lies, lies, lies, wielding power and bold.

The flames, so bright, had begun to burn to blaze. The smoke, so thick, smothered and covered in haze.

Until finally, the chill stopped.

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. Again, again, again it slides down the Great Wall. Drip. Drop.

Crack. Faster, faster, faster— Worthy of a deep stare. Drips into puddles into pools into streams into rivers. Roaring through the air.

Rocks fall. Birds call. and last of all… The Great Wall is not so tall.

He escaped the bed’s weighted sheets and his broken, failed relationship. A man in love with a woman whose wants lay far beyond his means to provide. She left him.

Alone, he wondered whether he had done something wrong. He was never given an answer.