So many watchful eyes
We were at the bottom of a telescope
On the other side of the glass
Their twisted whispers
Of cheat and lies
They thought they knew
Us and our lives
But in reality
They just saw Constructed
Versions of ourselves
Glued together piece by piece
Only the parts we let them see
Because the real ones
Were too vulnerable
To be
That sort of public
They saw our spitted words
Pitted against each other’s mouths
And our eyes like daggers
When we saw each other
In the passing
On that wretched sidewalk
But I never saw anything
I lived it
I laid there and felt your arm rest on
That slight curve above my hip
Your chest rising and falling
In time with the ticks
Of a time speeding
Too fast to make any sense of it
I pushed you into those fallen
New York
Freshly crisp leaves of a newly dawned autumn
And I heard as your laugh
Rang so close to my ear
That I fell right beside you
I even still jump
When I hear such a sound
Like that
Oh what I’d do
To have just one more
Awkward, too thick with layers
Embrace under
A December lit sky
Our smiles were warm and our hearts hot like a summer sun
Keeping our eyes luminescent
Even in the hushed
Tones of winter
I felt your fingers
Trace circles on the back of my palms
On days that could never feel too long
And kisses that were never quite the
Length I needed them to be
They weren’t there
When you climbed that tree
Because I said I just had
To have that pine cone
For my table centerpiece
And they didn’t see you fall
Off that lowest branch
They didn’t see me fall like the final snowflakes of January
Inevitable
A final surrender
All they saw was it melting
In the unforgiving brightness of noon
A couple of months
Just too soon
Well I was there
I remember.