Cafe Courage

The tang of his musk
assaulted her nose.

Her heart hardened in response.
Wall after wall sprang from the vast expanse
of emptiness within her.
The desert within her soul
the only trace of him
she couldn't quite erase.

The familiar slope to his nose,
the familiar set of his shoulders,
the familiar curve to his lips.
Everything so familiar,
yet now,
so foreign.

And painful.
Despite the walls in her desert
of a heart.

She continued to place one foot
in front of the other.
Continued to hold her head high.
Continued to be courageous.

Courage.
Never the absence of fear,
but the opinion
that what lie on the other side of said fear
was more important.

She refused to let this fear
become a limit.

Her lungs repulsed the poisoned air
that held his scent.
Her eyes repulsed the image
of him holding someone new.

Her heart repulsed the memory
of his hands on her-
both when showing her love,
and when causing her pain.

Her brain repulsed the knowledge
that he would break this other
beautiful soul he now held.

And as she tasted her tears,
she knew they were no longer for herself.
They were for the broken future
the next woman would face.

One foot in front of the other,
away from the cafe
where they sat.

One foot in front of the other,
back to freedom and light.

One foot in front of the other,
towards a future
brighter than anything she could leave behind.