A teaspoon

of coffee,

a dash

of

sugar,

and a heap of

my favorite cream.

-

But even this

tastes bland

without

a glimpse of your smile,

the sound of your voice,

and

the warmth of your love.

In this,

I am satisfied enough.

once upon a time,
you painted my skies
and built my world.
you crafted a reality
of freckles spangled like
stars up your cheekbones
and the lights you lit in
my dark, hollow eyes.

once upon a time,
we were a collection
of chapped lips and bad breath,
lying on our backs on
country roads and suburban fields.
our bones were weary but still alive
with that frantic flame of
youth.

but once upon a time was then-
and we live in the now, which
is a journey I'm still going through.
and the thing about constructed realities
is they tend to fall apart (eventually)
and the thing about fires is that
they go out.

[nothing lasts forever].