Can you hear it?

Ours was a love of gun smoke & closed windows

Remembered in Polaroid photos

Can you feel my breath escape?

I found constellations in my skin,

With whispers that shattered clouds

Your bombs.

Irreversible nights

Maudlin nights of terror- dare I say Death?

I do.

And every plane ride between continents reminds me of words, of paper, of smoke

Of your smoke

And the blood that stained my page in frantic frenzy

You stained more than mere paper-

You stained lips, neck, thighs

Bleeding into heart.

We were a theory

A moment of silence

The smears of ink in between pages

Silence.

Can you hear it?

It is all I hear.

In a time of dust and age and persistence

Time was dead

And so were we.