limp, hollow arms

limp, hollow arms

limp hollow arms she calls them

dangly, stringy, paths to an infested head

vying for potency

i've read those words

the ghost of these limp, hollow arms

clutches my chest

the shadow of that memory

battering my forehead with the agony

only misperception can carry

i'm still sinking,

but still ready to remind

perhaps the words

"i can see his

sturdy, full arms

beating you to the end of this flat world"

would impose less gravity on your tears

as they would drip in furor ,

stain my sheets with anguish

crawl back into the ducts

and drench on repeat

and i began to do,

i began to...

i...

i chose a lifeless something to murmur

i watched my hollow arms shrink

i photographed your spirit strangling itself

i absorbed your tears as they fell anyway

i heard you tell me you couldn't stay

i made the room darker than it was

i silently begged for you to sleep soundly

i cried in the wake of your absence

i felt you'd never return

i waited for your voice,

i waited for your voice.

you surprise me every day