Groping Metaphysically

Groping Metaphysically

Like using a sonnet to hammer in a nail

Or a screwdriver to fix a haiku

All efforts to love you were inappropriate.

You show me the white lightning

That scars your ankle

Tell me everything

I don’t need to hear as if honesty

Is a crowbar that opens redemption.

Like using a cloud to staunch blood loss

Or a fist to represent tenderness

All our efforts to make sense

Became mere sensuality.

I show you the wound

Your scalpel-memory has left

You measure how much deeper

It needed to go to kill me.

Like using a wrench to adjust a renga

Or a poem to chisel a dovetail joint

All my meaning is lost on you.

You speak to me in a language

Cut from a block of ice

Cold and dissipating at

Room temperature.

Today has turned into a funeral.

I will dress your issues in my own

Use our shadows as a tourniquet.

Bury love in a trench with quicklime

Use sentiment to carve a headstone

Say goodbye without ever

Actually saying goodbye.

Should I confess

I am a clock suddenly sentient

And dreading the slow unwinding.