Broken Lullabies

I tap my fingers along the padded walls
Pain searing into my flesh
The muttering voices of little children
Bribing me to wards them with their sweet chants
"Hush little baby don't you cry"
I tug at my ashen sleeves
Drooping over my bleeding wrists
Dripping to the floor
Leading a path to where I am going
"Mama's gonna sing you a lullaby"
My eyes turned stone cold
Darkness portraying the lightest hours
My heart beating faster with every tick of the clock
Sands of time flowing between my fingers
"And if that lullaby don't work"
I walk over to the corner
Slowly sit down with my legs crossed
Press the gun lightly to the inside of my mouth
Lay a finger lightly upon the trigger
"Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird"
And as the fragments of my brain
Sprinkle over the floor like graffiti
I fall into a deep sleep
Enticed by the broken lullabies.

© Jenna Elphick
May 28, 2006