Saddest sound

 The sound of the zipper closing the suitcase is the saddest sound when you're the one closing it because you have to leave your family against your will.
 My suitcase zipper made that sound. Now I'm in another house, living out of that lonely zipper sounding suitcase. In this other house, not my own, I'm held captive by thoughts of regret. I sleep on a couch in my clothes and get up to leave as soon as possible. Sometimes I even sleep in my shoes. The change in my pockets rattles as I toss and turn. I collect it every morning off the couch and return it to my pockets.
 I am alone in the dark in the house not my own. I squeeze my eyes shut but I can't shut out the sound of the zipper closing me out of my familiar space. It is a prolonged lonely sound.
 I never wanted to close that suitcase and hear that pitiful zipper moan. If I could have done anything to avoid this living nightmare, I would have. But I didn't.
 I created my own nightmare and now I'm forced to live it wide awake. I eventually fall asleep. I dream I am home in my bed with my wife. Sometimes I am at my home, watching my kids, waiting for my wife to come home. I fall asleep on my own couch and when I wake, my wife is home, but I must go. It seems so backward. Seems so out of place. I walk away into the night.
 I look at my house from the outside. I imagine myself inside, warm and laughing and cuddling with my family.
 I look at my life from the outside and see the lights going out on the inside.
As I walk away from my home in the night, the sound of the zipper closing me out haunts me.