The Lost Amulet

You moved with gentle hands, sleeves trimmed in marigold, your soft voice stretched thin across the ribs of the earth, your sweet touch warm enough to mistake quiet theft for kindness, slipping decay into things as if you were mending them. I carried your beauty like an amulet, not noticing how it was already burning through my palm, By the time the wind lifted you from me in a flurry of brittle…