Keep Them Far Apart

Keep them far apart

Of they’ll whisper

Down the halls

Whisper after their victims

Whisper after the legend

Of the girls

Who grew together

But only in spirit

In the most malicious spirit

Down to the dungeon

With one

Up to the roof

With another

The guards ploy them with riddles

And toy with them

As their hair grows down

Almost to their toes

One raises her eyebrow

And the other does the same

We take notes on times

And times of day

One starts a sentence

And the other ends a story

One begins a poem

And the other turns it

Into a song

From three or four

Or more floors down

What a pretty lock of hair

One cuts off

Using a blade

She fashioned

Out of the spoon

We trusted her with

She digs the blade into her arm

And blood pops up

On the arm of the other

A cut travels, it seems

A wound between those

Who are bound

Is welcome

For rather than a scream

We hear a gush of pleasure

From the other cell

And find one girl wiping red

Up and down her walls

While the other tries to stab the guards

Who hold her down

And make her see reason

One gets brought on a trip

To the countryside

Because the jailhouse doctor

Wants to do a little experiment

As the girl wades into the ocean

The doctor’s assistant at the jail

Takes note of the other girl

Standing in her cell

Water coming down through her uniform

And out from her hair

And down the pretty pink parts

Of her skin

The doctor returns with the girl

From the beach

And tells the warden

To keep them far apart

These two who the guards

Tell their families about

Over crusty dinners

In drafty homes

Where no love is as strong

As the one between the two murderers

Their bond no match for separation

Their kisses placed on stone

Only to have the peck appear

On the paler cheek

Of the other

One day the girl downstairs

Refuses to eat or drink

And the other

Despite seeming to be

As hungry and thirsty as ever

Begins to lose weight

And dehydrate

And soon is wasting away

To nothing

Are they punishing each other

Or is this some sort of plan

They’ve hatched

In the lost salons

Of their joint consciousness

They pass at the same moment

And only then

Are they reunited

Placed in unmarked graves

Reserved for the morally bankrupt

Of society

But next to each other

As it shall be

And even for those

Who have surrendered

To their basest selves

They are still given

The gift of company

As they make their way

To a greater Judge

One that can break through anything

One that can tear asunder

Even the firmest of held hands

The dirt is fresh on one grave

When a hand print appears

On the other

But it is only frost

And it is quickly

Cleared away

If you didn’t see it

You would never know

It was there