this is styrofoam-complex
& window washers at midnight
scrubbing broken glass.

i couldn't hear your words when
your mouth moved; thinking with my
hands again and sound is wasted.

clock's chimes are stilled but wind is
carrying hours into nightfall and soon
after, darkness i would never compete with.

you didn't have to scream to gain recognition.
singing into empty boxes was always enough
and are you unpacking or packing up?

shape-shifting again & this time i will be something
you could never bring yourself to throw away.
perhaps an old letter or a worn photograph that has
slipped thru the cracks of the now permanent marks
you have made. let me stay.

it isn't like loneliness waits inside cardboard
and
duct tape (sometimes,
sometimes that fancy glue you like to use),
just for you.
but i was there once and i know how fitting it can be
to slip in between self-loathing and hope. and i hope
i can slip in between whatever it is you are hoping for;
to fill you up. to bring you home. or take you back to
wherever it is you wish to go. or have gone.
whichever.
and i want to be a letter, a photograph, something
that has slipped in between everything important enough
to be stored in your cardboard world. so
are we unpacking now or packing up?
and no, duct tape will never keep me quiet enough.

01/07/2003

Posted on 01/08/2003
Copyright © 2024 Olivia Weinkein