for r.p.

i remember your eyes like the sea –

you were cornflower blue.

you were the salt on the breeze,

every other breath in my lungs.

do you remember swimming

in the summer in the creek –

the water clinging to our negative spaces,

our limbs nestled against each other

like keys in a lock?

ry, do you still have those crescent scars

on your fingertips? do you still play the guitar?

your voice was the saddest song.

your lips tasted like wine, like the sweetest sin.

there was light

in the space between our mouths. a corner

of the universe that existed just for us.

ry, do you remember?

i keep replaying the time line of our history,

but nothing is as painful as the present.

i can’t even listen to this song anymore

without weeping.