the night she told him
it was over he
had begun his descent.
he picked up a bottle of
tequila
from the liqour store as it was
closing and, turning left on
barrymore street, headed toward the bluff-
all the while taking warm swallows
from the bottle.
when he reached the edge,
he looked down
at the swirling water.
it was a long way down and he thought he could
see all the way to hell.
after about forty minutes of gazing into his
own mortality,
he stepped away from the precipice.
but something in him knew that he had jumped.