unwritten

i traced the faint blue veins
branching out beneath the
films of your pallid wrists,
a lifeline indistinguishable from
my own happiness,
wondering if you somehow
trapped my smile, my laughter
the heaves of my chests
as i exhale life that is so wildly
entangled with yours
within those veins,
in the same way i bottle your
sadness in tightly sealed canisters
and toss them into the ocean
while my lips utter a silent but
fervent litany of prayers for
the currents to chase your
demons away from the shore

instead
i found the answer
in your lifeless eyes
when i could no longer
see myself reflected in them
a denouement
i should have seen
when the scars on your wrists
foreshadowed a premature end
for a love story that
never had a prologue
to begin with