In the deep end of my closet
I buried all of the clothes
Of those I used to love.
Faces filled my mind-
I wanted to swim through their memories,
But instead,
I sat dormant, turning to dust.

Once, last September,
I sifted through nostalgia,
Found your favorite sweater
In the midst of the ocean.
You were sweet like sugar,
But lost in the sea.
I could not find you,
For I’d never learned to swim.

They told me they’d found you
Stranded on the shore,
Your body torn to
A paroxysm of discomfort.

And while I deplored your disappearance,
He sat by my side,
And gripped my hand firmly in a way that you
Never had.
And it was then that I realized,
That love was simply that:
Abiding the essence of holding me and my blemishes,
Venerating me utterly.

I cannot describe you
In one word or two,
Or in a picture,
Or in any simple thing.
You are but a catastrophe
Of threads, but I cannot find
The royal blue that I have been searching for-
Only confusion holds the epitome of
Your perpetual knot.

To me,
You are a poem
I could write
Eternally.