High Rise

Sworn to secrecy
Bound by lies
My lungs fill with lead
And pain

I walk down an empty
Boulevard
A coat wrapped around
My small body

He steps out
From the cool shadows
Gravel and stone
Beneath his feet

I raise my gun
His name on my tongue
But somehow
He says mine first

The ground is cold
I know that now
As the blood pools
Beneath my fingers

I stare up at the sky
As the stars seem to dim
On winter’s crest
And I manage to sigh,

“We fall, not with humility and knees pressed to the earth, but with life in our chest and our heads held…”

“High.”
He whispered.
These were my first words
To him

How ironic
That they were also
my last.