December 2016

I wanted to start the countdown without you telling me I was a pessimist,
or that I was melodramatic,
or that I wildly underrated other bouts in our past,

and maybe all of that was true,
but I was human,
I was loyal to my periphery and not much more,

and I wanted to get into a bathtub and wash myself of all of this,
let the steam rise up over my swollen eyes,
over my dry mouth,
and the cracks in my forehead,

and I wanted you to comb my hair,
to part it like the Sea,

and I didn't think that was too much to ask,
I didn't think so at all,

but I wanted these days to fall away,
as quickly as they had destroyed us,

and I didn't care how you thought that sounded,
or whether you thought I was wrong to pity a newborn,

I didn't care---