Unmapped

Like a melody that I once knew,
you sink into the buried spaces of
my mind and stain all the dull grays
a vibrant carmine.
Echoes of conversations long since past drift on a million horizons,
illusions of a mirage,
tattooing my retinas with a constellation of loss.
I weave your words from threads of
forgotten memories
and run them across my body.
But they lose their way in the
unmapped galaxies
you refused to venture near,
competing only
with the same spectacular way
I used to lose myself
at the mere thought of you.

 

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Untamed

You glance my way and

a wild stampede of heartbeats

escapes from within the cage

of my ribs. I cannot seem

to corral my thoughts, they ride

freely upon the rushing horde—

do I hold your gaze or look away?

You laugh at something your

companion says, flashing straight

white teeth like the picket fence

around the garden in my

memories, where we picked sugar

snap peas during lazy summer

afternoons. I catch my breath

and look away, attempt to calm

the trembling of my limbs.