Dead Ringer

Beyond the door, she reigns in silence
As I nurse the wounds of battles past
The air still thick with words of violence
She’s beckoned me to her court at last

With frigid stare and pointed the finger
Icy floors crack, under weight of strife
Her shadow cursed her name… Dead Ringer
While I balance on the edge of a knife

Her eyes roll, as if drunk with tension
I’m frozen in a numb surrender
In my tears, I’m shown sweet reflections
Of one I’ve lost, but still remember

It was an August day, down by the creek
She was summer’s heat, in a yellow side braid
Writing our names in the earth with bare feet
As her firefly laugh, chased the shade away

Popsicle cherry kisses soothed the burn
As her dress danced in the wind she had blown
And took my breath, with no return
On her sunkissed freckles, I drew a home

That day is lost to lifetimes ago
Though in me, her fingerprints still linger
But she’s now imprisoned as the shadow
Of the one I call… Dead Ringer.