Now me without

I, spread thin as beggar’s butter Around the spaces of a hollow home A cup of coffee, keys, a needle, a beer Not one is where it ought to be And each appears to me unknown

Wayfinders cairns for some forgotten route A mindswept pilgrimage A grayscale kaleidoscopic map The drippings of a pocket like a person Like a purpose like a sieve

Better to settle than to march To drip and pool, liquid as her shadow To stain our stylish furniture Borrowed now from a more aesthetic me A me with her, now me without

And still, her coffee cools My beer warms A phantom movement toward equilibrium Grasping across the silent loving air Joining her last breath

She is with our other loves Old and new, ragged and plump And sunshine both Our golden bubble in the spoon Our pallid baby in the bath

And here Me A me with them Now me without