I never knew you to be greater or less than
me. I was always connecting your heart to mine
with those two parallel lines
that represent an equals sign.
I never knew me to be dependent on your smile.
I was always denying that I loved you like a child
loves her blanket, lost so many years ago,
but now found again shoved into that narrow space
of barely existence where the mattress meets the wall.
I never knew that your hand held my breath
on the string of a kite that could yank in the wind and make my heart
catch. You’ve been reeling me in for some time
on your fishing line while I’ve been wallowing in my wishing mind,
pretending that we could somehow stay friends.
But days always seem to meet their ends
when the sunlight breaks and bends
at that narrow line of barely existence
where the ocean meets the sky.
I’m there, with my futile attempts to try
to save something good from something better.
