the absence poems: 5/27

5/27: x days before you leave

and I prepare for your absence without knowing

I fold laundry slower (to take up the time that you would)

((to sponge up warmth of my own))

of course it fades of course we were no better

than mirage (light refracted) ((empty up close))

(((why long distance could have worked

if you’d let it))) and I know you’d reject this science

call it casual and unenlightening like me

so I tune my ears to static (let it fester)

((announce it as home)) let the anxious eyebuzz I feel

when I stand pour out of me and grow

repeat words out an open window

you are inert you are unflinching

you are never going to change