We spent three nights together going nowhere below the mouth.
I started smoking to spite your memory.
You stayed a half thought in my mind.
We would hug across the car.
I started biting my nails to spite your memory.
I chewed your name in long, slow sessions nightly sleeping with you crushed up in my gum line jaws and teeth
you can’t sleep alone
I gnawed at night.
I can’t ever figure you out because I
couldn’t ever figure myself out.
Torn sheets
of paper
on my bare mattress bed.
