smoking ruins

charred blood of her heart
slides like mercury
through the smoking ruins of her love.
her throat constricts,
clogged with the ashes of her memories.
pain knifes at her eyes that burn
with tears like eternal fires.
crawling,she drags her hunched body raspingly forward,
nail-less fingers dead to the spikes of burning floor.
her shredded knees leave a weeping trail if he wished to follow
but he is standing in his arctic circle
as she finally reaches the door.
blackened hands turn the door-knob,
which begins to shake
as she attempts to stand for pride's sake,
and fails, even as the door opens.
sixteen years of love in smoking ruins.
she stumbles over the threshhold,
falls into the waiting darkness.