remember
how you blended into the pages of a good book
the words dissolving into your skin like
inkless tattoos all across your torso
the hallucination of a sunrise
the windless valley
the desert of sand
the war of fire
the bloodless victory
the tears of grief
the hero the villain the –
how do you run away from it all
how do you hold it all
how did you turn a book inside out and call it life
how did you take a life inside out and call it a life a body a story a mug of tea
a toothache a heartbreak a jar of faces
a meeting you meet with yourself
a meeting worth meeting
how do you do this to people now every time
you see them
you see yourself
you see them
one day a girl saw her whole self
held in the palm of her hand
the faces and places she’s been
the men and women she’s been
the people in between and the gods that she’ll be
the witches in the twilit sea
the violets of the mermaids and the
blood across their mouths
the hearts that she’s eaten
and those without
“I can talk to cats” you say.
you are serious
“really?”
“yes. all of them.”
you will die of asthma one day
an ocean of air withheld, you will
drown in the vacuum of space you
see your death a million years from now
and it is alright you have lived
a million years already
and when it happens, it will end beautifully
I promise you
