Away

Your gashing shadow on the campus bricks, pinions me to bow and stick to an aching fetal pose pulling more than the sallow shoes of a newly freed man My marred heart implodes as a cry of alert that my turgid insides won't keep their place as they're abraded with each step you take away I am twenty today- a scolding age that I tuck in my pocket along with my name and my shameful austerity a hint at the verity that sleeps behind my face But you were ageless, like the royal sky and lusty tree in my memory, a gentle green where you draped around me and met my mouth with such soft favor gingerly collecting swigs of my flushing lips So afraid of breaking me. You held me like a bird, our bodies sedate clement words like the clouds sweet as water to my heart Your hands knew the curve of my legs that pushed further through the night loosing fear with time and my mind with wine. I thought of little more than you and the sky But winter was a marauder that stalked my wealth well, with its furtive hands wide prodding with gifts laced with lies disguised by buttery eyes. the retiring feet were too subtle like the cracks in my knees that bring me collapsed to your shrinking back You're a disaster marking seals on my arm even today, my birthday where I see my normal days are made a blade and I'm afraid to watch you now like fallen prey. Because you walk away and I still love you.