Strawberries in Winter

For A Friend.

Sarah
do you see my mouth?
Circled and endless
and searching for closure.
Eliminate the throat;
don’t let these tears fall further.
Sarah
I know you like to watch me,
contemplating how something as simple as
time could have altered my fate.
You are the silk
and I am the wood,
chipped and weathered and cold.
Sarah
I feel I need to ask;
where would you be now?
I never believed in powers
higher than my own,
but something plucked you from the earth
and threw you down the drain.
It picked all your petals
and trampled them down,
spit on them and kicked them
all over the town.
Sarah
you are the flame and
I suppose that makes me the cold one.
I’ll write you and cover the letters in earth,
then maybe you can taste the words
wherever it is you sleep.
Sarah
I never heard a voice like you.
I never saw an untraced face
so perfect in all its decay.
Your little feet left no prints
in the winter’s snow
and I’ve been dying to spot them since.
Sarah
I wonder, were you there at all?
I hope you never confess.
I’ll collect all the petals
they stole from your skin
and I’ll open my mouth
and put them all in.
Sarah
you can be a part of me forever.