9/8/12

Once
By Emma Ambos


Once you were here
once you spoke

once we lay
naked and breathing
like walruses

in the clutch of ‘we’
we drove through
forever

it stung my lashes
with its bang

Once we washed
dishes of their past
we felt like gods
and gave them a future
in the brown cupboard

once we walked
paw in paw
stopping at
break-apart poles
and mailboxes
to skip sideways
like blue crabs

once you smiled
like a puppet
waxen without
the ability to
summon joy
a conjurers trick

you faded in my hands
clear-skinned and blue
by the men who
made you swallow
pills, that turned you faint

Once you said goodbye
only once you said it
but still
I say it
and I don’t
believe it
when it slithers out my mouth.


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A writer wrapped up in love with all things.