empty beer bottles

Empty beer bottles line the windowsill,
collecting dust down through their necks
to mix in with the last few drops of alcohol
not consumed,
nor rinsed out and down the sink.

Lined up in a row
they tell a story of the evenings past
filling our stomachs with barley and malt
until they reached our minds
and made us feel better.

Some are yours, some are mine,
but we drank them together
talking, smiling and laughing,
liking each other.
For me, at least.

How many beers will it take
for us to tell each other
how we really feel?

engulf

All happiness is gone,
sucked and drained out of me
by a baster
that feels small, but powerful.

I see it transfer all it took from me
and walk far away into the distance
to somewhere and someone else.
I am left here,
this hollow, void shell of a body
with nothing inside.

I see other people
who have fought off these basters
or never encountered them at all,
and don’t want to be near them
for when comparisons start
and I pretend to be full like them
the void magnifies,
and engulfs me.

It engulfs me.