Of all the things I should have told you, there’s one I treasure the most.

It’s the memory of your muffled laugh in a room full of ghosts.

You and I seem to be 

The only ones left in living memory

As though all the others have passed into the great unknown

Or maybe we’re the ones who’ve flown

And they stand over our sepulchers

 

The man you called your eldest brother

Leads services to your toast

While my sister cries and hugs her

Golden-hour lover

When I saw you through stained-glass windows and heard your laugh the first time

I thought I had entered an open field of paradise

 

Now we’re together

But apart

And I wish you would look over at me

To catch my coastal eyes in your ocean ones

And fill them with the depths of your mind.

 

Tell me you love the way

 My lips part when I’m smiling

And I’ll tell you how I love the way

You gasp for breath when you’re laughing

 

You gasp for breath even now

In a final laugh and I

Open my lips for a final goodbye.

 

I scream

I whisper

 

Do you know how I feel?