• Within a second, or perhaps one half of that,
    He could have changed the outcome.
    He could have shaken his head slightly,
    or smirked,
    or given any type of sign that he disagreed.

    Being human means having flaws,
    and like the rest of us,
    he cannot bear that kind of pain.

    But because his heart had broken
    and fell
    and split
    and ripped
    so many times until he felt a dull beat within his chest,
    he did not show her any sign whatsoever.

    And so,
    with a cold night looming overhead,
    she fell to the ground weeping,
    his hands silently quivering in his denim pockets
    while the dead thump of a lover's heart barely beat on.

    The wind blew briskly with another dead love departing with it.