Nailed shut

There’s an emptiness that will not be filled

It deepens

Slowly

Strongly

Like a moment of stillness

We wait

And we wait

But that numbness won’t go away

How pretentiously we plan our escape

Cover our tracks when no one is there

Like we can outsmart them all

Until eventually

When we look in the mirror

We no longer recognize the person staring back

So we stare

And stare

And stare

Until we have enough practice

To pretend we don’t care