Wide open spaces, join me there.
Lie beside me a while, breathe in the air.
I’ll breathe with you, I’ll do my best,
As I remember sobs and whimpering gasps.

i can’t touch you, i never will
you don’t know me, stranger in the field
but had you come by, two hours before
things would have been so different, so pure

i wouldn’t have screamed those sounds of despair
wouldn’t have known i would beg for air
wouldn’t have shared the intimacy of red
as i gurgled in terror, and my gashed chest bled

i would have met you, become your friend
you’d have given me a ride, you’d be my godsend
and i would have been your bride someday
our future, unlocked, by my going astray

but his car came first, in the decided universe
apart, yet together, our paths have diverged
i linger just to meet you, because i had seen
post-life – our love, all that we could have been

Do you see the ladybug, perched on that leaf?
Do you wonder at its fresh redness, do you smell the sin?
Perhaps you’re growing uneasy, you stand to go
I don’t blame you, my would-have-been lover, not I, no.

I hear your breath grow ragged, I hear your keys turn
At the spatter of ladybugs, my raw inelegance.
I hear your strangled cry, I hear the tires screech,
I look at you, as my body hardens in a ditch.

Goodbye stranger, reclaim your sunshine
I’ll always be your dead girl, your gruesome find.