13 June 2019

I should tell you that I carry all the lovers

I’ve ever known on my body. Not with their

Names tattooed here or there but on the

Body nonetheless; when tooth and nail cut

Deep enough to make the skin bleed with pleasure,

Leaving scars that hide stories others may

Discover. But memory is fragile. I’ve forgotten

Names, I’ve forgotten how we met, I’ve forgotten

What we said, what we promised or why. Details

Dissipate like the embers of fires crumbling to ash,

Consumed. Only the flesh remains.

Those habits, those gestures, those

Turns of phrase become phrases that turn on me

When others note how they would say it that way.

Where am I in all of me?

We tend to forget the parts of others that make us,

And what others have taken from the way that

We loved them.