How is it that the universe expands
and I cannot diminish thoughts of you?
Your memory should be cold now
instead it scorches and burns

melting the edges of my existence
until sleep eludes my grasp
and I chew on my lip, surprised
that blood tastes more of salt than copper.

Pain travels from twilight into blinding brightness.
There is no impenetrable shell, no leaden wall,
only the will to cauterize its oppressive nature
and banish it into the shadowed recesses of being.