before you go to bed tonight

before you go to bed

tonight, will you

take stock of me, you

us, ours?

the encroachment

of our ghosts,

their clinking voices

singing into glasses

brimming

with our receding

desires

 

before you go to bed

tonight, will you

promise, to continue

this ritual even when

I am more fragile

when tomorrows lose

their guarantee, when

I accept finally that, the

etymology of thyroid systems

is as important, as implications

of latin word roots

 

before you go to bed

tonight, will you

pledge allegiance

to me even

when the moon

will no longer, be errant

branches no longer

fall in bluish tiptoes

through our windows

while we toothless

will chew on a shared

orange, an accumulation

of pips shrivel, will collect in

a bowl, at our bedside

next to a dish with my

new prosthetic smile

 

before you got to bed

tonight, will you

journal, this night

my love bites, confused

almost a shadow of their

stains, my scarred breasts

the nearly calligraphic abyss

on your chest, quietly formed

like the waning moon exactly

where my head still rests

testament to 10,000 nights

measuring the irreverence of

29 years, meanwhile

I will  continue to pick

with my fingers an unceasing

silence into the hairs on your

chest, graying now

in touch still mine

 

before you go to bed

tonight, will you

recall our stories, retina

received memories

before cataract

sets in, to be cauterized

just for old times’ sake

gather light, into

our eyes, speculate

as we did, brewing coffee

before we box them

into our arthritic

skies, toes twirling

as they will touch

through old socks

cozy, colorful, conciliatory

randomly picked from the

bottom of our closet drawers,

never being pairs again

 

before you go to bed

tonight, will you

take stock

of the rhythm bristling

within our hearts, near

arrhythmic now, also

of my purple silences

the radio repeating

one last ghazal, in sequence

to your snores, they purr

back and forth, familiar

in their psychedelic

patterns,

ZZZZzzZhkgzzzZ-gkkghhh

ZzzzzzzZZZkrrzzzzzzchhrrr

saying, to me, darling

while you sleep

I am right here, near

come quieten me,

once you exorcise

your

daily burden

into your potions

lotions

motions, emotions

just be careful, dear

don’t trip the edge

before you go to bed

 

 

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