i could feel your fragility under your coat. but there was nothing i could do. nothing anyone could do.

the cold was biting, even in the place where you had lined up, under the sun. the younger ones, naive still, clenched their faces as their eyes flooded with tears.

the older ones joked and jibed as they held their relations tight, the devils smirk of gallows humour drifting like spirits from their lips.

the world carried on, beyond the walls, it could be heard, a frenzied runaway attempting to escape itself. to no place in particular.

as smog fell upon the mourners you stood, frozen in your grief, a vision in black, ensnared by the sadness of your love. i am so sorry.