[If he closes his eyes he can listen to her words, and her breath, the faint perfume that still lingers at the end of the day. He can take this small offering of human contact and grasp it like a life raft.]
Shouldn't be so hard.
[Hard to live with. Doing the right thing.
If he could just stay awake. If he wasn't drunk. If he could keep this memory.
If he wasn't already gone, breathing turning laboured and deep as a blank, empty sleep pulls him down.]
hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river
Shouldn't be so hard.
[Hard to live with. Doing the right thing.
If he could just stay awake. If he wasn't drunk. If he could keep this memory.
If he wasn't already gone, breathing turning laboured and deep as a blank, empty sleep pulls him down.]