requiem
i think holding you near the kitchen light
wouldn’t be so bad. to gift you this fruit
in quarters. to slice them grateful, knife skinning sour. 

let us piece together the month’s cold as we 
fish for bleached shadows sinking between us. 
eyes glimpsing your tepid tenderness as we

shatter upon touch. hushed words pulsing pressing 
flat against my tongue. you wash yesterday’s dishes by the sink 
and my heels hurt from the bareness of it all.  

i think 
i’ve loved you enough to die. my years shedding off me 
my lips smothered smooth my flesh all palmed dry and i can’t

thank you enough for it.