i have come to hate
the way your lips catch
on the corner of your words
or the nape of my neck,
yesterday
i unbuttoned your ribcage
and crept into your skin
but everywhere i searched
i wasn't -
the final blow
was not the absence of myself,
it was not your cancerous grief,
but in the bellows of your torso
buried in your bones:
i read her name
and felt nothing.