There is a bridge
between caring and not
Sturdier than it looks
and once you take the first step,
it’s easy to cross.
You can see them there, still-
the things you used to care about
Feel them watching, catch the breeze that carries across
a memory of them, the scent of something
lost
You can taste the regret of not going sooner, mingled with the stench
of the things that ripped them away, the things
you never could have cared about
no matter how you tried
Even in the shackles, looking back across the water, streaming water
down your face
the things that turned the others
into monsters
are less than nothing
inside nothing
under the surface
Bold and bitter
and irrelevant.