She is porcelain,
shattered.
I remember her yelling,
"Oh
dear
oh
dear,"
blank in the face;
a single tear
on the edge of
her right eye.

She is broken,
sudden mayhem.
I remember her,
grabbing my shoulders,
her gaze lifting
over my head;
and then
I witnessed
the most
extraordinary
thing:



her eyes.

Who?
I'll flirt
my way through
who?
You.

What
are
you?

Brilliant, funny, filled
with liquor.

A faded sign,
her every
exhalation unsignaled.

Sobbing, sudden.

A mix of whimper and scream
and cigarettes and wine and knock-knock
jokes and ***** and

it was our
last day, Saturday,
our
last
day.

I am a heavily folded
sheet of stationery.
A Roman
nobleman.
She is
so
so
sick.
You are
Shakespeare;
you are
wrong.
It took me
f o r e v e r
to decode:
The fault is
NOT
in our stars,
but in
ourselves.

She is a letterhead.
She is in
my empty bed.
She is
enough.

Unable to fly,
unable to
shimmer in
the light.
I move like a
d r e a m,
soundless.
Icy air makes
me feel
e x t r a o r d i n a r y.
I finally have
s o m e t h i n g.
I've woken up
i n v i n c i b l e.
Purple,
plum,
almost black -
the bleating
in my heart
without anyone,
made for me,
custom,
s k i n t i g h t.

It
was
a
gift.

Zero;
You
Xenophilic
Wanderer,
Vastly
Unaware
That
She
Remembers,­
Quietly
Pondering,
Ominous.
Nothing;
Maybe
Love,
Kaleidoscope
Je­alousy,
Igniting
Hatred,
Grieving
For
Everything.
Done;
Can't
Beg­in
Again.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
That’s what you told me, voice strained, quivering,
as we made our way to the edge of the proverbial
cliff, as the needle began to break the skin
covering our love, as the overwhelmingly dark
cloud began to cover our sun, as I began to
recall every second every moment everything.
My mother would have told me the same -
I know that’s why you said it. But, my darling,
you’ve never been a very good liar.

And Bravery Came,
Darling, Effortlessly,
Forever Granting
Her Invaluable Justice.
Kryptonite (Love),
Maybe Not,
Or Perhaps
Quixotic (Remember?),
Stolen,
Taken,
Undercover,
Vendetta,
Wonderfully Xenoglossy,
You Zorro.