when you and I were us
I used to picture picket fences against green grass
perfectly made beds and rainbow bouquets
but somewhere after three word whispers
and before black lace on bedroom floors,
we turned into just you and just me
and that's when I realized-
we're no longer those golden little things
really, you and I
we're just this thread
this thread that we keep pulling and pulling and pulling
until I’m naked in front of you
like I have been so many times before
but not just clothes naked
naked like the kind where my skin
has turned into the words I’ve left unsaid
naked like the kind you feel on an operating table
your eyes dissect and slice into me like sterilized metal
foreign and unforgiving
I miss the way they looked at me before
and that's when you see it -
the feelings I can't stop feeling
and these cuts they burn
because I know I can't have what once was
I can't leave my love on this table and make you take it
as if that's ever what you wanted
instead you slice and slice, taking these pieces you want
and I say nothing, I do nothing
but sit there, naked, holding this thread
waiting to stitch myself back together when you leave