You can fall in love,
Toppling topsy-turvy,
Through each other.

Unfortunately,
You cannot just fall out.
That is a much more painful and precarious process.

It starts with disappointment,
A broken promise, a careless remark,
A misplaced priority, forgetting a date,
Arriving two hours late.

Next, comes a lie…just a little white one,
But enough to prove,
There’s more where that came from.

Then,
Fights fueled by fear,
Parading as passion,
Ready to strike, recoiling,
Slithering around the stomach,
Then up the spine,
Hissing, “You’ve made a horrible mistake.”

One day,
You have nothing to say.
All small talk is spent,
And beyond that,
You do not speak the same language,
Both homesick tourists in a foreign town.

Then, your body stops responding.
His touch, once electric,
Becomes more like Medusa’s glance,
Leaving you lifeless and statue cold.

With each realization,
A part of your mutual heart,
Crumbles and falls to the ground,
Like the bread crumbs from a fairy tale.

The time comes,
When you look at him,
And see a stranger,
The common ground you once shared,
Has shifted like tectonic plates,
Signaling a natural disaster.

“Why are you so angry at me?” you ask.
“Because you’re leaving me,” he screams.
Though he is just across the room,
You are so far gone,
That his voice is a distant echo.

Another night, another fight.
You keep moving farther and farther,
From any memory of why,
There was ever an us.

Right near the end,
Panic sets in.
You turn,
Hoping to find a way back,

But, the crumbs,
Have been gobbled up,
Leaving no path,
To the past.

It is over.