a dance with grief, solitary steps towards the partner you never wanted to meet. stepping in, bowing out, a bit closer and then dash away to measure, examine, evaluate, and incorpirate this small pain into who you are today. never the whole heartache, only fragments because you are no longer whole, and each fragment is paired with a sliver of your soul. a patina changing your appearance as well as the way you see. not rose colored. never roses again. muddy, soiled, and dark is your life now.