"fog"

​by C. Ikpoh

You have taken the greatest of memories, ripping it from my mind. The grayest of grays has settled over my eyes, painting them with your smokey hue. All I see is Fog. I know she is in there though. I can smell her scent on the gentle breeze. I hear her faint footsteps patter against the moist pavement, slicking the soles of her shoes as they wipe the blacktop. Where is it she walks to? Tell me! You cannot have this one. Not her. Not now. Not again.

Must I squeeze my eyes shut to trap you in? I would rather force you into the recesses of my mind then let you escape to walk away with her in front of me. Her place is forever in me; the figment of my imagination realized, she is the object of my affection. She is the apple held captive in my eye. Be gone, Fog! Allow me to find her. The palm of my soul is freezing without hers to blanket it. Do you not see my eyes frantically searching internally for where she has been placed amidst your ocean of mist? They shake as a snow globe, creating a frantic atmosphere. I MUST find her. Fog, where is she?
 
Is that her in the distance? Why must you birth condensation, clouding my windows with water? The beads dilute the image. This is NOT the time for this. If I cannot unite with her once more, how do I tell her that I have to let her go and leave her with you? How do I tell her I am abandoning us? She has loved me with the realest love any woman could give. Never has she created a single regret. All I have done for and with her, I would do again repeatedly. She saved me with her faith in who I am, in our love. I have to tell her this. Please, give her back to me.
 
I fear what will become of me if she is taken from my life. You, Fog, more than anyone, know the places my heart has been. The dark is no stranger to my presence. She is my light. Yet, you stifle her ray. You suffocate her glow. You are a murderer, Fog! I detest your existence. This world I live in is hard enough. I face it everyday knowing what it did to her. Knowing that it trapped her in there. All I have is what you seek to encapture. This is all that remains of what I had, what we had. I... wait. No. NO! Why is her back to me? She is dissolving into you! Fog, I beg of you! Please! Please... not this one. Not the beginning. I'll never meet her like this again. Never!