i'm melting for you
my heart drips
while your cream-colored candle rests under it

breath coated in bourbon
whisky fantasies
of you and me
i couldn't prepare for your hair
or your stare
or those bouts of two a.m. mayhem
i'm melting for you

i romanticize each time we cried
grip tightly onto the shouting matches
the steam in my heart
the dreams we couldn't start
relish every disagreement
burrow into bereavement

i punish the moments that weren't
the tides we almost rode
and the currents we never surfed

maybe tomorrow i can breathe

i can't quit this
nostalgic nicotine
yearn for laced fingers
face lingers
my eyes are appalled
              but
my mind is resolved
to absolve you

let the pages grow longer
love a little softer
unwind with intention
peel back dimensions
there i am

this empty shell
quiet hell
the record skips a track

you left me bare
stripped and scared
there is no going back

so why am i still dancing with you
the ghost of my past

so why am i still dancing with you
the hardest part of love
is when it doesn’t last

in the distance
there you are
each step a saunter toward forever
my preamble

i can wait

Library looks
There you are again
Palatial gazes
Music engages

The longer our eyes lock
the faster it becomes
Strings
            smoke
keys
            crack
And it builds
            and builds
                        and builds
and ceases
like that

You collect your items, I gather misgivings
You exit left, I stammer right

Today
you were an octave,
Maybe tomorrow
you are a symphony