like a curtain drawn back

unveiling

an interchange
on needle-point

piercing the pours of skin

no more here
than

tearing at

single

tears

sewing up the silence.

Each
and each
we crease
the other

Now
-and-then
fleeced in
these private
places

Sites
the cost of
admission
a declaration,

Each time
clasped,
elapsed in
locked-jaw
choking vows,

The skin shed
unread of
etching left
behind
itches
to be put-on
again worn
-out cut for
another.

Each
and each
turned-away
the unwatched
has grown scales
to fit,

stretching cells
a new suit.
Unsuited.

What remains
in surrender?

Each,
and each
stutters
(the secret)

Overhead
rain-pools of
overcast
dreams linger,
threatening
to cry.

I miss the world
of your hand like
a passport
to somewhere
cupping mine,

the lines of
your laughter
mapping my
longitudes;

a liminal
volcano
of tears
threaten
to gush.

Only ever
, content in
an envelope.

Only ever,
watching words
for cursive
wounds throbbing
beneath the surface.
Only ever,
half-present
without you.