I knew
His reputation
I’d been warned to stay away
Anyone but him
He cycled towards me
Blue eyes, blond hair and a smile that lit up my day
We were lost together
Yet I felt perfectly safe
I didn’t listen to the warnings
I fell
But he swept me up and I flew
Through luminous clouds and hurricanes
Experiencing highs and lows I never had before
Until that inevitable day when he left
And I landed in a puddle of all the tears shed
And I swam to my lifeguards

I don't think about it any more
I take out the trash
noting
Sticks caught in the crotch of a tree
The wind does what the wind does
breaks weaker branches down
does not care where
it leaves
them
on its invisible way

Days do what the days do
they don't count themselves
worthy as they go
to release
the afternoon
to evening—
an artless
emptying
to a low spot
where tears tend to pool
if I'd let them down

“You know,
in that low spot
out there...?”
Where it's hard to see
Where its hard to care?

They take heart
out
divide it by energy
for sadness—
I haven't got

Watched the clock go round
wipe out my little plans
with relentless hands

...and I never got dressed today

I wish I had never fallen for you
because eventually
I landed.

when you breathed
i breathed
because the most intimate
i could be with you
was when our breaths caressed
each other.