I’m wearing your old jacket. Remember? The one you used to fish in. The one with the tear in the silk of the right-hand pocket. You used to tease me. You used to say that this jacket kept your loose change safe from my chocolate addiction. You being left-handed; me being right.

I bury my face in the nap of the moleskin collar. My nostrils fill with your scent - stale cologne, a hint of woodsmoke, and...fish. More disconcerting than unpleasant, it’s all I can do not to choke on my memories of you. Of me and you. Together.

'Tell me, how can I be, now that you alone are gone and I am left behind?'

I feel like I’ve been abandoned in a foreign capital with nothing more than the clothes I stand up in and a wallet full of the wrong kind of currency. The day is drawing to a close. My luggage has disappeared with the exhaust from the bus which took off before I could catch my breath and explain my dilemma - that I’m not sure where I’m going or even where I’ve been. Lately.

Maybe a kindness will point me in the right direction. An open-all-hours diner on an inner-city corner, snuggled in between the high-rise office blocks. Maybe I’ll have enough cash for a meal and a trail of hot, sweet tea to lead me into tomorrow. Maybe I’ll close my eyes and remember where I’m supposed to be and what I should be doing.

And just maybe, as the rhythm of the traffic slows and the night progresses, I’ll find some peace in the ever-changing cityscape. A time-lapse production of late revellers, harried shift workers, the dispossessed and restless; until finally the earliest commuters and exercise fanatics emerge from the riverside neighbourhoods to face the new dawn.

‘Hey, lady.’ A disgruntled voice shatters my reverie. 'I ain’t got all day, y’know.' Scrambling for cash, I reach deep into your left-hand pocket and find...***...a limp fifty-dollar bill...and a battered envelope. There’s a note scrawled on the outside in your familiar hand:

'How can you be, now that I alone have gone and you are left behind? The short answer is: you will be. For you are as singular and complete today as you were before 'mine' became 'yours' and 'I' became 'we'. My darling, I’m no tourist. You know how impatient I can get - always taking the most direct route. I’m just out of sight around the next corner. You take your time and meet me when you’re ready. Sometime...later. Whenever. I’ll be waiting.'

Stunned, I mutter an apology to the waitress and step out from the warm fug of the café into a bright, fresh New York morning. The doorbell tings shut behind me and I realise with new-found clarity that I know exactly where I am. I’m home. It’s not going to be a great day but it’ll be a better one, which is a start. Besides I have things to do - chocolate to buy, a jacket to launder, and a needle to thread.

'uP'
Prayers are wing's to envelope our thoughts spoken or not to God's ear,
Every word He does indeed hear,
It can be a plea, a question, or just a statement or two, So lets lift one another up to God's loving ear's,
A prayer can erase your every fear, help us carry one another's burden with care,
So let's lift those uP feeling defeated because of these floods. In Your Holy Name I Pray, amen
I wrote this during Hurricane Florence along with several others. Let's lift one another up! © an hour ago, Venjencie Arnold ~SacredInkedBlood

Kissing her was more than transcendent.
I came to the realization that this one moment was infinite.
Setting ourselves as a door.
Revolving the same emotion that otherwise would flee.
The exact teachings teachers and prophets set as the floor.
We elevated.
Our breath becoming the message stuffed in the folds of our mouths.
Licked and sealed.
We were but envelopes made of flesh.
Our ***** left open, receiving the best of our former selves.
We discussed the effects of paper once wet.
Neither of us cared.
Becoming one with another.
Our fears smeared across our face.
No longer a label our stamps fell off.
We categorized ourselves the sender of mail we often thought to send.
But as over thought occurs.
We become shuffled around. Lost in thought.
Until we mailed ourselves.
***** left open

I am a sealed
envelope
licked by
past promises
that have found
a home
in the corners
of my frame
Go on
cut it open
liberate me
I dare you

his heart was enveloped in ice
ice i couldnt melt

his mind was enclosed with walls
walls i couldnt break

his body was a temple
temple i couldnt enter

Drifting in the shade
of Hello Poetry's grave
In archive (a kingdom's history)
the past has once been made

Stepping on the bleached bones
parade of dreams
Crunching fragments of sentenced themes

Epitaphs of honor
comments to poets 2010
Poems laid bare of praise lost in time

Great poems whose eyes
were never shed
In a broken aspiration
now lay dead

Cruch , crunch ,
the landscape littered in 2012
Oh what sacred feelings
not forthwith

Here ! lay my poems
to rest here
In 2014 my poems
of yesteryear

You are an envelope
I am pen
I am paper
I am words
I am a letter
I want you to write
I want sweet words
Now fold me
Put me inside you
I want you to wrap me
In your envelope

Place silhouette pieces or outlines of my heart in thirty or more envelopes.
Paste each one with a new soft paintbrush which clean cream bristles. Push them into torn up fragments of clean new watercolour paper. The sharp edges feel through onto the wooden table leaving mistaken, accidental grooves. Glimmers of sawdust are ****** up into the pockets of your lungs, where they contaminated and will permanently sit.
It was a small heart, the colour of grey sky reflected on seas and carried in bloated raindrops. The texture of diamond. Carved up as easily as wax by a blunt butter knife.
The envelopes are neatly labelled with white tailors chalk powders.