Bandages

I need you

to squish my face between your
hands and push out a breath

but you left

and the dust that follows destruction
swims through my body like smoke

there’s no exit here, in our place

where even the walls seem to bleed
and tubular snakes cry rusty tears

your tarred jacket lies splattered on
the floor like spilled ink over hop-scotch tiles in

black and white and sometimes blue
when we had no money left

and it was only last night that we

unpaged our Ikea constellation
our dream-home, lime-green and a bunk-bed slide for the kid

my toes curled around the idea of
matrimonial bliss as you drove my hips into the

cold checkered floor before these shards circled
my body, a broken halo of crystalline flakes

from grandma’s vase aimed at your head as
I buried you in words that did not know

where they were going, sad little bullets
led astray by a buffeting tongue

perhaps your heart is too small for my mistakes?
because I really need you now, I have something to share

so I share it with myself and cradle
my secret into tomorrow.