ars poetica for the faint of heart

I’d let you breathe,

maybe

if I wrote you down

& maybe if I wrote you down

,maybe

you’d let me

breathe leave.

I tried to

once.

I tried to un re member

but your pulse was still there

and when we passed,

my lungs refilled with the vague feeling: what you called nostalgia

and the need

to hold

your hand. or you —