My hands grow numb
and tingle from standing
still all the time.  And even
though my heart pounds in
my chest loud enough to be
heard three rooms over,
my body won’t leave this
bed. I know all of this is my
own fault, but I’d still like to
blame it on you if you’ll let me.

Muted voices through
a hazy speaker can hardly
substitute for the real thing.
But I swear sometimes I can
still feel your breath through
the receiver with every word.

I.
I am no longer buoyant.
My body is lead and rock,
swiftly sinking where I
once floated in ease until
I reach the very bottom.

II.
Please don't let me sink.
I can't be this heavy forever.
I crave that weightless feeling.
I want to bob back to the top
and feel the sun on my skin again.
But I can no longer see the surface,
and I can only hold my breath so long.

When these marks on my
body fade, that will be the
last of the you that is left on me.
I want them to remain. I want to
have these reminders of where
your mouth once traced.

My body is a blank canvas that
you have painted with your love.
I was a beautiful masterpiece.
but now distance and time
is returning me to what I once was,
blank and untouched.

Each day I
press my ears
to the rails
to try to
catch the
vibrations
that tell of
your arrival.
But day after
day passes
with not
even a shiver
on those
tracks that
run between us.

For many years we were planted in this soil together.
We grew from seeds to saplings, our roots entangled.
Now there are thick forests separating us,
and I have been replanted into such foreign ground.
Sporadically I catch your leaves on a gust of wind.
They tell of how you are no longer a young seedling.
They tell of  how you are thriving in our soil,
even with my roots no longer intertwined into yours.

We have learned to blossom in our own earth.
And someday we will become only stumps of what we once were.
We will no longer flourish with fruits and flowers on our branches.
But my roots will still know yours,
and they will remember where they were once interlaced in our beginnings.

your mouth
always leaves
such beautiful
lines of poetry
upon my neck