A time that I forget to forget

title.

Still alone, I watch the footprints in the mud

I don’t want you fossilized in my bloodstream

& my heart still skips when I see

your newly emaciated cheekbones and exploded lips

(the revolution I embraced panics me- turns me from creator

to the observer)

You! An unwilling lover, the way your nails imitated paper cuts

and my calves held me to you, I realize I fake loving

I can’t take the spin, the dizzy-down orgasms of remembered faces

when I’m in bed shaking from the aftershocks of every bruise

that you didn’t label me with.