Loveless

A Poem by Natalie Walsh

You cut the engine 

& my body turns back 

Into the shape of your hands 

Like how the sea retreats into earth

Reclaiming its kin 

I cradle your breath in my stomach

Without words, I tell you that

I have never known a man to love

Gently

Your marching band-blue voice 

Is strung through the headlights

Like Christmas garland   

These walls never looked so cruel

As in the twilight  

Your eyes are muddled

A watercolor in the rain

Don’t make me cry, I whisper 

With your shadow,

Unmoving

I open to calm your idle knees 

Bones folding over themselves 

Like lilacs in the breeze

We are whittled down to a single tripwire 

Taut trepidatiously about the backseat 

One breath away from being blown 

To smithereens

Tell me a story of love

While we die in the meantime

& answer me this,

Before the world meets its end

We were ever as real 

As we are in memory

Or were we simply

Two ghosts 

Alone in the night