When life turns against us,
I choose you.
When scars are all it seems we have,
I choose you.
When the easiest way is out,
I choose you.
When the easiest way out is not easy at all,
I choose you.
When the end seems like the only way,
I choose you.
And if you walk away,
I choose you.
Until my end and beyond,
I choose you.

****
****
Me
You
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I uncurled myself today
dug my fingers right in, nails first
like putty my skin gave way
and I reached inside
sinewy tendrils I grasped like noodles
slippery and slick
and I pulled until
I removed myself
from myself
and unraveled
in a wet pile.

I still wait for you
I still long for you
I still think of you
I still want to talk to you
I still want to smell you
I still want to touch you
I still want to *******
I still want to love you

I still want you
and drop tears that will not stop,
at the end of the day.

It's funny how
things like
opening and closing
the windows
with the daybreak
stick in your mind.

I asked him how he dealt
with his father-loss
babbling the words out
in all my anxious longing.

"I know, Son,"
his voice came
from across the world
like a Father's always does.

"That tightness
in the chest...
Yes,
I know."

I had never felt closer
to another man.

I had never felt more
like his son.

I had never felt
more understood.

A gradient of gravel
rough, coarse,
thins,
and the asphalt cries
tears of tar
where you once parked.