Broken Promises

A Poem by beautifulblade

12.31.14

I couldn't look him in the eye, all the words I wanted to say getting caught in my throat -- a bear trap of constricted breath and sharp toothed hesitations. Neither of us had any more tears to dump in each other's laps, layers of 'us' shed piece by piece until all we were left with was bare bones and empty emotions.

"I'm sorry." The words finally snaked out from my lips, slithering through the air to his ears but never really reaching his heart. I said it again, over and over until the air was thick with apologies that fell to the floor like droplets of acid rain.

He shook his head, fingers tracing the key shaped necklace on the table between us. He had given it to me for our six month anniversary, a day after I had revealed my secrets and a week after he had seen my scars. The same day I made a promise that I had broken time and time again, taking a piece of our relationship with it each and every time.

I couldn't do this without him, but he couldn't do this with me. He sighed and moved to rest his head on his hand, and the necklace fell to the floor. The key skittered across the ground until it came to rest with a party of dust bunnies dancing around the floor boards. The broken chain was forgotten by our feet, a pile of fractured memories and abandoned assurances.

"I'm sorry, too." He broke the deafening silence and was gone, leaving me to drown under the weight of his words, sinking in an ocean of disbelief and being crushed by the pressure of a thousand unsaid 'I love you's.'

"I'm sorry."