and you
say I'm chipping old paint
off of the walls
just because it's something to do.

you're probably right,
but instead of saying that

I introduce a long silence

which could have stretched
across the earth,
over all of the cities and seas,
and came back around
to be tied in a neat bow

~

we stare down at the floor
and watch as it
tangles to a heaping mess,
curling impossible knots
swallowing itself in every iteration.

it could have been forever
and
I wish that
it was.