if I saw your eyes now
again
after all this
without the matte death under your eyelid
that I never laid eyes on
I would know
instantaneously
that you would leave the world
in a hurry
get away from it all
that you would choose
to stop existing
in a place that feels like hell too often
unlike yourself
so unlike yourself
you’d conclude your life
with your greatest fear
all you wanted is never to be fully seen
so that they’d let you live unharmed
you grew up sustaining injury after injury
everybody else trying to keep you alive
but there was a murmur in your flesh
that got to you ever-punctual
a judgment call from head to toe
and I look at you pre-cremation
what kind of love brings us together like this
Croque-Melpomene 