black eyes reflect the haze of yellow tail-lights long gone

wrinkles memorialize muddy suitcase tracks

pursed lips remember a screaming match with someone who is only

a distant memory of a shared blanket under a meteor shower

a strand of hair tucked behind a reddening ear

a goodbye kiss on the porch, clothes soaked in starlight

ripped pictures littering the floor

wild gestures and wails trickling down to mumbles

the final gust of wind as the front door slammed shut

a throat and heart bleeding raw.

red chopsticks clink together on a table for one

trace the constellation Cygnus in rice grains

but look closer

it’s Odette, wings broken, sprawled across an empty stage

velvet curtains drawn. 

talcum powder tumbles from red-rimmed eyes

grazes chapped lips, wine seeping through the cracks

sway like the willows you stood under 

the day he said I love you for the first time

raise a finger- “one more please.”

in the flicker of the swinging chandelier 

is the girl in a yellow sunflower dress

barefoot, flushed from dancing

cross-legged in a dew-kissed meadow 

sending dandelion seeds whirling into a sapphire sky

beckoning to a scarred past.