flying somewhere againwhat does it matter whereall these thousands of feetup in the midnight skyyour ghost flies along with mewithout stopping to breatheoutside there is a stormand inside it rages still

even as I stareinto the inky blacknessof night-time sky35,000 feet up in the airyou are right therestaring back at me

broken by you completely,I no longer knowhow to love

there were daysI wished those tricky roadstook your life

I know what it isto love a man like youI will not steal from herI know what it isto be broken for youbleeding all over the place

one last thing this year:finally letting you go -you are not mine now.

do you even knowyou have tamed a wild thing,made it yours?

celebrating us:I am still breathlessat the thought of you -even after all these years.

and now,whenever I soarjust a little too high,I remind myselfhow you unloved me -and it burns my wingsright down.

to think wetried to teach each otherhow to love

just when I thinkit gets betterclothes throw me –this top,wine red, pinstriped,brings to mind howit made youwant to turn back,take it off me,take the day back –make it oursI don’t want to seewhat you once saw –andno longer desire

don’t undo me like thisif you don’t mean tokiss me again

My heart was lost completely in that magical moment when you turned and looked at me for the very first time and whispered ‘beautiful,’ your dark deep eyes filled with everything I’ve ever wanted. We were at our highest then. After that it was only fall.

The other day – drink in hand, at sunset – you said people don’t ever really get over someone they love.I was trying to explain that old rule of thumb I read somewhere, where they say it takes half the time you were with someone to get over them.No, I don’t believe it either.

you have crossed borders dismissing sanctitysurmounted barricades once unassailableto lay at my feet an explosive giftlove is too often a bulletI am left shaking in anger, engulfed in guiltwhen I have done nothing but listen, unwittingly,to a confession I never saw cominglove is a violation of territorial integrityyou are a separatist movementaiming your guns right at my headan attempt to ...

(the memory of)your kiss is still a knife I holdbetween clenched lipsa live bullet insidemy mouth

I am waiting  for my hands to stop shaking to stop aching  to stop wanting to touch you I am waiting for my skin to forget the signature of your smile I am waiting to stop shaking to breathe again to take back the heart I gave you so recklessly the first time you pulled me to you I am waiting  to stop starving  craving weeping shaking I am waiting to stop

I still remember how it began, this lifelong obsession with perfumes a gift from my uncle returning home after two decades away (he didn't even come back to bury his mother, you see, forever sending her letters home unread, unopened) a pack of five exquisite French perfumes I, barely 16, hooked

I always thought we would have more time that day, bleeding all over the place, washing everything including ourselves laughing at disaster when we still could you said these were the memories we'd take with us I always thought we would make more but no

let me leave you like one would a building no turning back to give it second glances, caress the curves of its arches, or linger in its doorways hesitant, longing let me leave you like that, effortlessly – step out into the light or the night at my convenience let me enter lives like one enters a train, coach, ...