Dimming

in the dimming twilight of her twenties,
She turned from the outside in,
and gave nothing, and took nothing

her life had been a tragic series
the father left and somewhere died
her mother drunk or high, until a kind aunt
whisked the child up and fled

cancer killed the aunt, a car the other aunt
a foster family for a year, bounced twice,
distant cousins through junior high
her senior year on her own

so in the sadness of her teens,
She turned from the outside in,
and gave nothing, and took nothing

believing the up-from-down stories
of the successful she worked her way
through college, struggled, spent
her nights clearing tables of chinese food

a fight on some early playground
had left her nose an ugly bump, a broken flap
and she dated boys who didn't mind
a few months of being seen with her

in the lonely space between school and life
She fell without sound and did not rise again
but passionless and bored, she worked and nothing else,
She dimmed and turned from the outside in,
and gave nothing, and took nothing

-Friday, October Nineteenth 2007