the light turned on but her pupil never shifted

the light turned on and flooded the room with incandescent brilliance, illuminating all, casting shadows in the corners

in her eyes the light has gone off

flickering fluorescents cast a yellow pall upon her body, the lack of chest movement indicating what was gone from the room

a fly landed on her open eye

it rubbed it’s feet together as it perched upon that azure orb, the same orb that had made men fall in love, answer her every whim

the lifeless corpse that once danced and sang, that called to every available soul in a ten mile radius, pulling them to her, now sat like a life sized puppet but the strings were cut, sat in a pile, where it collapsed in a puddle of waste, the last release, eyes open and staring blindly at the light

did she head into the light, find the tunnel and follow it to the heaven she deserved

or did her sins catch up to her and pull her soul to the warmer climates to the south

the blank stare into the swinging bulb, the shadows cast across her beautiful face, the slack jaw, the fly on her blue eye, the puddle, that vacant stare

her final moments spent with her best friend the bottle of liquid courage that made her almost human, almost whole, less that the pain insisted, now spilled onto the carpet, a wine red splotch on her pale white flesh and the ugly beige carpet

accidental death, intentional suicide, equal measures the same end, her vacant stare saying more than a life of pain ever could, ever would, ever will again

the flash of cameras, her twenty one gun salute before the car ride downtown to determine cause of death

it was a broken heart that caused her death

a broken heart and the promises of a better tomorrow that panned out as well as could be expected

the coroner report would say different but everyone knew

she stopped living weeks ago, it was just a matter of time

just a matter of time