There is a piece of you that lives inside me.

I know it is there because I can feel it

Along the ridges of my spine

And in the hollow of my collarbones.

Like a sparrow it hums

and beats its tiny wings

to the rhythm of the pulse

In my wrists.

I must have swallowed it when I wasn’t paying attention.

It must have been when you were laughing

(it’s hard to pay attention when you laugh).

It must have slipped down my throat

When neither of us were looking

Funny how that happens.

Or maybe it was when

I was struggling to bear the burden

Of a hundred stones of sorrow

On my aching back

And so you took them from me one by one

To give my spine a rest.

Or maybe it was after that

When you found that the stones you carried

Were no less heavy than mine

And so I took yours and you mine

And we bore each others burden to the end.

The part of you that lives in me

That nests in the spaces between my fingers

And takes flight in my lungs.

It keeps my hand steady,

Fills my lungs with something

More potent than air.

It rages fiercely with sharp beak and pointed claws

against the weary sadness

that curves my spine and bows my shoulders.

When I look in your eyes

I am surprised to find that a piece of myself

Has made a home there too

And for the first time I realize

The vulnerability of the sparrow inside me

Echoes my own.

We two people have loved each other

And so we two people have changed each other

that is our burden and our gift.