Even our tears have lost their luster

and out of my foggy recollection

I try to pull happiness

but time is static in our world

and now is the only option.

Carefully reconstructed truths

from reckless young times

Surface on the oceans in my pupils.

 

Do you remember

when we built a house

from sugar and the skin of our fingertips

and arms intertwined we reached.

Our craving for sweetness

controlled every breath, every touch.

Guilty of innocent destruction

we chipped away, forgetting to savor

the flavor that has since

abandoned our taste buds.

 

I remember gazing at stars

reflecting in the pools of consciousness

seeping from the spaces

between our ribs

which flowed upward

content to defy gravity

as long as we would allow them to.

And as we hungrily feasted

on chapped lips

our half closed eyes allowed the pools

to flow beyond the sky

and into nothingness.  

 

It’s hard now to remember

when you were

my most important meal of the day

when your laugh bounced around my hands

if I was not hungry, kept for safekeeping.

When I released it later

it was all the more sweet.

But last time I opened my palms

I found the sound of your voice

had leaked out around my feet

too far down for my ears to reach.

 

I’ve found I no longer have enough

energy or enough strength

to bend at the angle required

to pick up the pieces of your broken glee

and liquids are defined by their definite volume

but indefinite shape.

So the volume of you I once held

has not changed

but the shape has been evaporated and condensed

into a new formation

that I’m not sure I can hold for much longer

before the weight pulls me off my feet

and onto yours.