Seconds

Seventeen seconds until the curtain's call

Seventeen seconds left to look at you

Seventeen seconds to breathe

Seventeen buttons down the back of that dress

Sixteen years lived before sent to die

Fifteen steps down our hallway

Fourteen letters hidden in my room

Thirteen years before you woke me up

Twelve reasons I tried to hate you

Eleven classes we had together

Ten screams that broke my heart

Nine that I actually heard

Eight months lived in doubt

Seven times I asked you to dance

Six times you agreed

Five different times you thought I would run

Four little children flung into this battle

Three tiny words we would literally die to speak

Two worlds brutally colliding

One

One night to end it