Twice
by Michael R. Burch

Now twice she has left me
and twice I have listened
and taken her back, remembering days

when love lay upon us
and sparkled and glistened
with the brightness of dew through a gathering haze.

But twice she has left me
to start my life over,
and twice I have gathered up embers, to learn:

rekindle a fire
from ash, soot and cinder
and softly it sputters, refusing to burn.

Originally published by The Lyric. Keywords/Tags: relationship, reunion, reuniting, parting, breakup, breaking up, fire, embers, soot, cinder, cinders, sputter, sputters, sputtering, cold, ash, ashes

We've signed that truce a couple hundred times
Still step on the same couple thousand mines

I ask you
'how have you been? Isn't this your favorite drink?'
but also
'I hope I'm not trying too hard'
I know I probably overthink

You say
'I had a great time with my friends. We had so much fun'
Sending a picture
'how was your weekend?'
Isn't that a strange mixture?

I grasp for something deeper still
Aren't you too?
I can't be the only one here that wants and will
Clearly you want to share as much as I do
So shouldn't you be willing also?

Why claiming, wanting
but then feel distant
Why do I feel like I need to be hunting
for anything resembling something subsistent
I don't want to feel like constantly being insistent

cold drops falling
soft leaves slowly
sliding crystals
the soil again
becoming rich
color taking fill
lungs come whole again
one with the rest
connecting the opposites
into the loop ever stirring
the wheel slowing down
never stops turning

I remember meeting you when the world knew you were sane.
Before life tried to finish you in it's game.
Then before my eyes everything around became so distant.
No matter how hard I tried or to who I listened.
It wasn't over after that, me looking at your photos of after you turned black.
Maybe pity got me to mix up my feelings.
Another conflict in my mind, another thing I was dealing.
Then, again you were distant, more I imagined possible.
The reality of you moving beyond everything in my mind was unstoppable.
And so, I just hoped you gained peace.
Didn't matter in my mind whether or not you thought of me.
Not gonna lie, in that time I misjudged you.
You were moving on but better than I knew.
Won't forget seeing you at the fair.
Memories of previously how you hugged me came back then and there.
I was glad to see and again hear from you.
And that thought of you in my head became again a better view.

From the last life we were like this,
so meeting you here and now we're just reuniting.
Trying to remember all that we forgotten.
Did love stay fresh, or did it go rotten?

I guess only time will tell.
From the first time we met, I felt I already knew you so well.

I just hope even when we ain't in heaven, you'll still stand by my side through hell.

Who were we?

I could feel the powder on your skin
The absence of your soul
And the lack of life in your existence

You looked like a doll of wax
Posed and examined by strangers who barely cared
Placed in your casket by unforgiving hands

I shan't forget the juice stain across the front of your hat
The spot of blood on the back
Or even the clip you attached all those years ago

I'll return to you someday in the future
And when we touch, I won't allow your skin to seem fake for even a second