I learned to love you like the rain:

sudden,

cold,

necessary.

Your love fell sideways, never quite where I stood. If it wasn’t for the comfort, I’d be swallowed whole by the spiraling storm.

Silence devoured me.

Silence sounded like you:

cruel,

still,

always lingering.

Silence was soft, yet you wore it as a disguise.

I bared my teeth—yellow, rotting from the inside out, corroded by your spoiled words.