Skysplitter
written by Johnny Lee Chapman, III.

I have chased the sunset for years
But none shine like this snapshot
The last one we shared.
We watched, together...sort of.
Me, from the roof of the hospital
You, from the room four stories below
On the floor where most stories end.
The peeking rays resemble wisps of a weeping God
Prismic tears for points of view
Refracting the regrets I had to bury
With you.
I laid to rest our future
Accepting the eternal night and
The brutal truth that next time I saw your body would be in a box too expensive
At a funeral where midnight replaced my family’s faces.
Night always follows after the light fades
After the conclusion we wrote together
In that sterile prison
After I hugged you so tight
Afraid that my trembling arms
Wouldn’t wrap all the way around wasting body
Or I’d fail to express my emotions.
Words were exchanged while we embraced
You whispered to me-probably only to me-
That you were scared.
...so scared.
So scared to meet the end
To leave these dreams, and your daughter
In another’s hands. I cried “I know...”
But how could I?
I did not have a meet n greet with death
Only days after a new year.
All I knew was that this was it.
That this was our story’s end
And I knew that I wasn’t ready to dip
Into the darkness of grief and depression.
So I ran.
I ran from the room
Ran up four flights of stairs
Snapping photos of every detail
Like the caution stickers
The valves on the pressurized pipes ready to burst,
and the ivy clawing up the hospital wall
Clinging to durable surfaces;
Like my roots wrapping around you.
I ran to the roof in pursuit of hope
Removed my cracked phone
And captured the essence of an ending.
Chasing the sunset because I knew
This was the last light
We would share together.