I opened my eyes, blinking back the blurriness. Shook my head, trying to rid it of the grogginess.

I looked at my surroundings. It was a cave. Cold, damp, and mildly dark—mild because lamps were hanging at various points around the shadowed room.

It was a small and round cave, as most caves might be. I could even hear the lonely, echoing drips of water, one drop by one drop, as they trickled thr...

It was a dangerous relationship. Both for me and for him. Both, for different reasons.

For him, I was a dark and wellbred thing. A person who was delicate and wild, a juxtaposition, a paradox. A question without an answer and an ellipses when a period should do.

For me, he was a comma. A place to pause. There had been many commas. Many pauses. I had already met my exclamation point. My shout. My...

I’m a nurse. They have protocols for things like this.

I am a nurse.

I cannot abandon my patients. It’s illegal. Let alone unethical.

But what about my family?

I don’t want to spend my last possible moments alive with total strangers.

What do I do?

What do I do!!

Ok. Stop. Pause a moment. Look. There’s a closet. Badge in. Good. Now you have a moment to think. It’s quiet. No hospital hustl...

What I’ve learned from death

With a lower case “d”

Because he took their last breath

He gets no capital from me

He’s a motherfucker

Some went by cancer

Some went by Covid

It’s not even meaningful

And we’re left with no answer

So fuck what death has to say

What a cowardly witch

All I have to reply

Is he’s a son of a bitch...