Night cooled black top

Littered with pebbles

Bits of metal

Discarded trash

Each step eats away at my feet

Each bloodied footstep

Getting me one step closer

Cars pass by

The air current shifts off them

Tugging at the hem of my long frayed dress

Disappearing from sight

Not even a flash of red from the brakes

Some slow

Offer assistance

We’ll sit in silence for a while

They ask questions

It hurts to speak

Hurts to breathe

It doesn’t matter

I end up on the street again

Back where I started

Where my sun bleached bones peek through the dirt