Do Not Walk This Way
by Salena Casha
Steps can be counted, measured, numbered,
Written down on paper with the important scrawl
Of a mathematical epiphany.
The twilight remembers the steps she took
As she trundled down the boulevard
Drunk on the starlight,
Vaguely recalling her mother’s warning:
Do not walk alone at night.
She did not pause at the caution sign,
The blue glow of the moon
Weaving a halo above her head,
Claiming her as one of its children
Who walked the streets alone.
The night’s messenger,
His owl eyes unblinking,
Saw the way she played in the shadows
Of the street and chose to follow her, his steps beating a
Half-rhythm across the pavement.
He witnessed that ballet and
Blamed her last number on the way
Her feet danced across the asphalt,
Her innocence humming in her shoes,
Staining her body with crimson.
And the stars recall the final steps she took,
Numbering her life as just another journey completed,
Another journey stopped too soon.
Writers Bio
Salena Casha's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Niteblade Magazine, Six Sentences, Ethereal Tales, The Medulla Review, Muscadine Lines, Writers' Bloc (Rutgers), and The Shine Journal.
Inspirational Image

Pieces Inspired by this Image
'The Secret of Life'
by Andrew Stone
'We wait'
by Logan Watson
'In Memory'
by Harmony Hodges