Cracks in the Pavement

 Someone who was once part of your life
becomes part of your memories.
There's nothing you can do,
they're gone.
She's gone.

There are cracks in the pavement of love.
People trip over them all the time.
You can't step into the future,
when you're  stumbling over what's broken.

He lowers the blinds in his moldy motel room.
He has no plans for the future.
He needs to break this addiction, this habit.
This want for her touch.

The sweet scent of her hair.
The heady blue of her dissembling eyes.
Her glowing aura of falsity.
Her aching betrayal of his trust.

He sits on the sagging mattress
 and stares into space.
So utterly alone. Bereft.
She went to Toledo,
She never came back.

Is it death or is it defiance?
He'll never know.
He pays his bill and gets in his car.
He's going to find her.

She's not in Toledo anymore, he finds.
She's gone to Arizona now.
He rests his head on the steering wheel,
He'll drive to Dallas, instead.

He'll release himself from this need.
He'll start a new life.
All he has left is the memory...
of trust betrayed.
He is broken...

©Ellen Pepper 2026