I have a tendency to feel so small
Remember I told you that you are the one
Cleaning out the splinters embedded in my skin because
Out of nowhere you stumbled into me
Your voice a foreign echo in another’s
House so clear within the tight walls where
In this room I once lay trapped
The air hot enough to scald me in a far away
Country that was once my resting place
On some other blue green white planet
A future dangled in front of me and a
Cold wind blew an entire horizon through me
Clear as the perfect rough agate we found that
Night they conjured spirits for your benefit
A river once steamed from your heat
Few could ever know this but I saw
Days lingered like that lazy brown river
After you sat and kept watch
You came to me, you shone and
Were red from the sun you stole and
Buried in your front pocket
As I stood away from you
I bent to touch my scars and
Was aching for that very sun you took
Standing thirsty and stunned
Alone on that road I proudly wore my crisp loneliness
In a hell bent way I shouted your name and
The birds retreated and quieted
Yard after yard of comfortless dashes in the dark where the
Stars took on your brilliance
Overhead they knew your fate
In the night mist you cried
The idea that your life was just
Middle of the road made you think
Of everything you couldn’t possess and I whispered
A more perfect man never stood here
Total recall will sometimes throw you
Lunar pulls can sometimes carry you
Eclipse, another sweet sad lie for falling
A death without dying you said as a
Coyote brought his prey to your feet
Howled in the wake of your loss
And you stood so still I hesitated touching you
That’s when I prayed to my God
When you go away from me
I won’t say the word death because I
Knew that my dying was necessary so
You can resurrect me
Were it not for the love that was placed
Far from my reach
Far from both of us in the way you took
Away time when you finally spoke
From a hard place inside of you where
Me is a pronoun and you and her a we I once counted on a page.
Polyxeni Angelis was born in Athens, Greece. She emigrated from Greece to America with her family in 1967. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. Her work has appeared in the 2011 Montreal Prize Global Poetry Anthology. Writing is her passion. She resides in Minnesota with her son.
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