There are going to be moments like this, when I can look back

And see the entire string of events hung together

Each one chewing the tail of the moment after it

Each one

Both a meal and a hunter, an arrow and a bow

I can see it all so clearly, in that second, the way it was, and then

The way it will be

The break in how you speak to me, the pauses getting longer, the slow

And inevitable fade

There were sparks on your tongue, in the beginning--

There are always sparks--

And now, when you pause for your coffee in the middle of the day

You glance at your phone, put it back in your pocket

Before the boss sees

You never settle back into your chair, shielding the screen from your office

To send me words tinged with fire.

I am a ripple, an ebb in the tidepool of things that happened to you

A glimpse at an alternative life

With a woman who eats embers and watches time crest and fall

Eyes back to the beginning

And ever to the horizon

Peace

Her only chosen stranger.

In two days

I'll send you a message from the past, scorched by my own tongue:

It was fun babe,

While it lasted.

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