she watched the smoke the cigarette her hand
and felt the fissure    form
      frighten butterflies
already flapping in her                     gut

the silence turned her                      head
but not her                                      eyes
as shadows darted in
and out of focus
across that marble mouth
that mouth like waves of sand crumbling
at the corners
filling empty valleys grain
by grain

the fissure widened
tearing her in half the                       collar bone
snapping with the pressure
until at last
she lay in a dustheap at her feet

**

she turned her gaze
searched a moment

smiled

and the fissure shut
snapping together like a magnet