My mouth still lingers with the flavor of cigarettes
and all I can taste is you.

My hair still is brisk and musky like the woods
and all I can smell is you.

My eyes still burn from the cold on that late winter day
and all I can see is you.

My skin still itches from the wool scarf you gave to me
and all I can feel is you.

My ears still ring from the song you wrote
and all I can hear is you.

My mind still sits in awe of the way you are
and all I can think about is you.

I can feel you not listening
You may hear me but you do not listen
The words I say collecting in air
As I wait
Looking at you
Never looking at me
There the words hang
Waiting to be answered
But it will never come
Because you hear me
But you do not listen.

Your touch ignites something in me.

It leaves me breathless.

It leaves a sense that I'm still alive and breathing

But you soon leave me cold and winded.

Your smell is what I look for in the air.

I urge for the sent of coffee and cigarettes.

Not the smell of cheap perfume and ***.

Your sight is impeccable.

You told me it was love at first sight.

Then straight after you serenading that young waitress with your lies.

Your taste was a delightful bliss.

The feeling of your full lips was my sweet escape.

That's why I expected the cherry lip gloss still lingering from nights before while you thought I was sleeping.

Your hearing is what amazed me the most.

Even though you heard me sobbing constantly into my pillow you ignored.

All you did was give me that reassuring smile that you thought could fix anything.

Oh, were you so ******* wrong.

I barely know you
And I don't know
whether my feelings
will grow
But I think about
how I have to speak loudly
if I want you to hear
And I wonder
If I ever tell you
my secrets
How will it feel
to speak them boldly
As if I'm finally
voicing everything
about the world
that hurts
for the first time

So you don't hear well, you say
Left ear a bit better than right
You're a little apologetic at first
But you look me in the eye
And at my lips when they move

When you look away
You don't hear me sometimes
But maybe that's okay
Maybe I could learn from you
To speak with more intent

I wait as your head is turned
And due to your brief absence
When you look back my way
I brighten all the more

pretty boy

she'd recite in building echo

to Paul the parakeet

his feathers slicked like Elvis' helmet hair rustling

in her beating loop

Fall's plucked leaves

his caged mirror spins on strings

in the wind's singing

a pocket watch tick-tocking

from pecked emerald plastic

to the inverted bird

hollow