The sum of your parts

I see you in snapshots

the way shooting stars tease the sky

but stun the observer

and the natural instinct to point

is a sobering realization

that beautiful things are often out of reach

and arm's length is actually a far distance

but you fill the pockets

of where I am

and where you're not

you travel dimensions

at the snap of my finger

and the outline of you

saps the colors

and nature bleeds green with envy

as it fills your lines

and evergreen trees aren't so ever anymore

and bluebirds are just birds

and dandelions scatter to my only wish

and the moon is your halo

and the sun sets when you walk away

but I, being clever, found a way

to combat the darkness

I tuck your image

under my eyelids

the way a soldier carries his lover's photograph

in his breast-pocket

kept in hiding

near his heart

a reminder of what it's all for

and closing my eyes

is when my vision is clearest

I hear you in fragments

how the silence makes the music

the way children tell the truth

how heartache leads to billboard songs

when couples in their eighties still say they love each other

I thought echoes faded

but my headaches make sense now

when it's your voice pin-balling around

without stopping

the way I adore you

no end in sight

but your voice isn't painful

except when there's pain in it

and

when you let me in

I will commiserate with you

and I will trace your lips

with the fingertips of my words

and I mean all of them

and I will quell you to sleep

the way I once did

when we agreed our voices worked as lullabies

and sleep graced us both

and fairies sprinkled gold on your eyelashes

to keep your eyes shut

I feel you in shards

how mornings hit like freight trains

pricking me with shattered glass

when I reach for your skin

and clutch empty sheets

Are they cotton or linen?

Why do soft things feel rough after having held you?

My nerves burn in agony

seeing couples hold hands

witnessing hugs at airports

capturing glimpses of the inside of love

I feel you when my gut pounds like a gong from me ignoring it

when "I love you" can't convey its tonnage when reduced to a phone

in hot showers knowing you'd raise the temperature

I remember the warmth of your breath in my ear

and how it collapsed my spine into a slinky

my skin crawling with goosebumps

how my shoulders looked better with your teethmarks on them

I envy whatever touches you

the way a choker would shape to the slim of your neck

the way diamond rings grip fingers

I will learn your ring size without you ever knowing how I did it

I taste you in flavors

how fruits are in seasons

but you're ripe all year long

and I am famished for you

you're a luxury dish

that became my comfort food

the way your tongue dances

leaves footprints in my mouth

like wet sand wanderers

and your kisses when you're sick

taste sweeter than ice cream

but melts too quickly

and you drip all over my fingers

but I'm a fiend for your nectar

so I lick them dry

every last drop

and smirk my goofy smirk

and Newton's third law started

from your tongue and mine

like how rubbing sticks

and friction and vehemence

started the first fire

in my soul

and the aftermath

of your arson

left ash on my palate

I smell you in whiffs

in passing gardens of potential bouquets

how the cannabis you used to light roamed into the atmosphere

and I got high off of you

feminine energy is your perfume

the aroma of your past decisions wrapped in your present ones

I dwell on your scent

as the cologne I wore for you gathers dust

and remember how our smells made a dangerous concoction

a fragrance they couldn't sell in bottles

the most potent of potions

the way your hair smelled the one time I saw it wet

the way adolescent boys think a pretty girl should smell

how the savor of your car replaces my oxygen

and triggers instant nostalgia

how I inhale your pheromones from hearing your name

and sniffing the air as we made the room hotter

what our bed would smell like after we messed it up

what becoming one would do to our noses

The sky drips your stench

and I chase after your vapor