i hold the memory of your between my palms
your life is hanging on lilac strings tied to the tips of my fingers like a marionette doll,
i swing you into my present
dancing to tunes of music that used to move you,
pull at your heart strings.

all i have to do is stop moving my hands in curves and lines
all i have to do is stop letting you preform pirouettes and arabesques over sheets of paper that have not yet been introduced to the idea of you

i birthed an image of you so beautiful it could live on for eons
but you will no longer live through the words i speak,
you will no longer live in between the pages i keep
you will only reside limbo
in distant memories
fading away steadily, slowly

i loosened the strings
one bye one, your limbs began to go limp
you are no longer the ballerina
light on her feet
twirling in cursive and italics
you’re the ghost of a lover i had painted and framed front and center.

(this is when i take away your immortality
this is where you end and i begin.)

consider this your elegy
rest in peace, lover.