Be wary of the feeling we sometimes get
that’s not really a feeling at all

the absence of feeling

do not let yourself become numb, because it’s easy.
Because when we aren’t here for it
time passes far too quickly

Slap the red back into your cheeks
Shake it off like you would your leg when it’s fallen asleep

Because there’s someone out there, holding their breath
biting their nails and losing sleep,
waiting
for you to come back from wherever you’ve been

I want nothing more than to shed you like a skin
To emerge, sticky and wet
and dry my wings
in the white light
of the moon

Let the wounds that gape inside you
face the air

Let them be the fertile soil
in which something green, and living
takes root

With rain rich blossoms
and sun soaked vines that work, slowly,
to seal them

You need only move
so slightly
to keep the rhythm slamming
in my chest

Please tell the people you love that you love them.
Preferably while they are here
While you have warm bodies and lungs
to push air through them.

While you have the arms to pull them into your chest and say,
“there is nowhere I would rather be, than here with you.”

It’s the feeling from the passenger seat
when there’s nowhere you need to be.
The tangerine sky is bursting
from the fallen sun, and it’s summer.
Your arm hangs out the window,
hand scooping at the breeze
and it’s warm
even though the heat of the day is fading.
The growing chill slides up through the balmy air,
but the goosebumps on your legs
are from the music