if you'd been killed last night
by a stray bullet from that desperate boy's gun
i would have held the broken pieces of you inside of me
until they returned to dust
and when they returned
i would surrender myself to the emptiness of that space
and throw sunflowers and love notes into it

if you'd been killed last night
every word delivered to my ears would burn
and i would crumple
it would be a nail into every vertebrae down my spine
it would make me close my eyes to never reopen them
i would be desolate

it took the possibility of losing you
to realize i love you more than i thought i did.