If I wanted it to end like this
it would end
a truth obvious and unpleasant
and all alone
To love you
a selfishness indulged at length
to leave you
a selfishness indulged in brief
Were I capable of conclusions
I would draw one
from the endings I know already
those bleak words
Lucky for us
my memory isn’t all that
lucky for me
the forgetting is mutual
Peeling back kisses
like skin saturated with sun
given time to set
history with edge translucent
To remove is to relive
to relive is to relove
to find what I’m willing
to forget for you
Easy at first
when infatuation drives fingers
replacements made room for
as lust requires
It’s the afterwards that’s of interest
the spaces once saved
now negotiable
ready perhaps for the sun
Collector of lonelies
incapable of being alone
tonight
will be missed
tomorrow
with all the rest
yesterdays
and yesteryous
Got enough empty
for us
self sieved
space
to be sown
constellations
we can forget
together
Guilt
dappled now
with practiced shrug
to sit it right
Your princess
in another castle
my coffee cup waits
daily
To sell salvation
with words you’re fed
virtue
without meaning
I’ll sleep just fine
tonight
belly full
from found delicacy
Smoke
a distant smell
left in mid Midwest
with you
It surprised you
somehow
that I remembered
when I claim to forget
Lies of abundance
curling at the edges
as the flame
overflows the cup
I think you
and your words appear
a coincidence cultivated
by thinking you often
Half-hope
in the interim
I’ve been forgotten
a margin exaggerated
Altruistic negligence
my love at arms length
an abstract offering
made of me
I’m there for you
all you have to do is ask
question unknown
the story so far
I’d miss you more
if I could
love you more
if there were a way
to measure the meaning
of more
Qualitatively consume me
if it makes merit
feed on flesh
that sings your praise
I’ll lop a different love off
if you ask
Letters I’ve written
on what this love is like
I’d send them daily
if it made a difference
hourly
if it’s what you need
You said I was stupid
and I agreed
incapable of loving you more
whatever that means
incapable of loving you less
if only
