Innocence.

-Innocence.-

There's a gold band wrapped around her finger,
As she stands there dressed in white,
Their lips lightly colliding on the dance floor,
On that perfect star-lit night.

He holds her body tightly against his,
Vows to never let her go,
Her heart is racing beneath her dress,
And deep inside of her is a secret you didn't know.

She's drowning in the nicotine, choking on the whiskey,
Laughing all of her troubles away,
Her lipstick is smeared across your rosy cheeks,
Laying in bed the very next day.

Knocks at the door as he jumps up to answer,
Walks outside and the voices fade past,
A gun shot is heard down the street,
As her heart starts to beat fast.

A bullet to the head, one life is spared,
As she falls to her knees in front of the news,
Tears fall down upon her beating chest,
Watching the story from the camera crews.

Walking through the clinic, people stop and stare,
Calling her a sinner, calling her a w h o r e,
She sways side to side as she staggers to say:
"I've never done this before."

A nurse comes to her side, helps her to her chair,
Looking at her with pity coated in blue,
The doctor looks her in the face, tells her to go home,
And for what she wanted, he never knew.

The bump was hidden under a baggy t-shirt,
And her eyes were bloodshot red,
"No pity for those without a heart;"
Was what the doctor had turned and said.

She jiggles her keys in the ignition, foot pressed to the floor,
Speeding through an intersection, hit from the side,
She fades away as everything turns to white,
On the side of highway sixteen, she slowly died.

Sweat embroidered Mary's sheets, as she awoke that morning,
With tears in her eyes, and an empty bottle of wine,
She looked to the closet, a dress hanging on the door,
The clock read seven, and she had to be there at nine.

June eleventh, her big day had finally arrived,
The diamond on her finger, a smile in her heart,
For she knew that her Mother was there already,
For no matter the distance, they were never apart.

The white dress was draped around her,
As she walked herself down the aisle that day,
A mother watching her from heaven,
And no father to give her away.

© Jenna Elphick
September 25, 2006.