Paralysed

I am paralysed. Cold beams of light find their way through the slouching curtains, touch your face. I can’t breathe, air defies me, my lungs are crushed. Detached from myself, I watch the particles of dust tremble in the space. Your hands are warm, you hold me close but I am far, so far away. An echo through the abyss, you beg me to breathe, to look at you. Slow vibrations of hope shudder through my body and I shake, I gasp, the dam breaks. There are tears that overwhelm my eyes, that fall faster than I can blink. I am sobbing, frozen limbs spasm as I cling to you. “I love you, I love you, there’s nothing wrong with you,” you whisper. My sigh is that of a blackbird startled into flight. Mascara stains on the pillow. Fractured, shattered, broken. Me.