expensive regret

the velvet choke of gold-plated guilt 

drag your tongue on the cathedral floor in your evening gown stitched from gauze and shaking. 

no apologies spoken, 

just champagne colored silence and wrists hidden in opera gloves. 

we dance around the diagnosis, 

parading under chandeliers that drip morphine and mercy. 

said i’d quit, said i’d fight, but addiction’s just a lover with no mouth to bite. 

dontwaitup. 

we’re dying in alphabetical order and no one spells your name right anyway.