Someone had rubbed the genie’s belly

and you were there, not a vapor, but touchable

and we stood facing time in front of that 1895 Regulator, 12:28 p.m.

but my stomach never hurts when I get sick,

something that helps me not feel pain

also helps me not to think of you

The what I so did not want to expect.

Yet here I am; there it is,

and all around the hoarfrost ground crackles, pisses –

Nothing breaks this ice-crackled glass,

This pre-winter silken, unhallowed frosted, brown earth,

the traceless nothing of my step;

At last I gave it up.

Arrived virgin white,

but after sitting next to you, bare feet

this way it will be all inclusive.

We’re all democrats here, hey –

A brief exhalation that parses the barrier

of your half-pursed lips.

I am the easy, steady silence

the empty space you fill with me, your hungry ghost;

I wait for it, as one waits for a death sentence.

It is grey, cold and final. It seems to say, No more, I have had it.

I, Zeus’s daughter of water, father Poseidon’s brother

you, early founder of Rome , both of us born of water,

I wait for it, as one waits for a death sentence.

It is grey, cold and final. It seems to say, No more, I have had it.

You leave me here like this, knowing I can take it.

You tell yourself this - it makes the going away easier.

Never emphasis on word, sealed with a kiss.

How serious then are we, church returned, absolved.

Let it sit until it stank – careful,

your wabi-sabi ways are showing.