somewhere in the ruckus of the train car

through the crowds and stained floors

i must have gotten tangled

the strings of my conscience

knotted in the webs of remembrance

slowly pulling me back into the station

you trudge forth like a soldier 

one with no anchor to humanity

slipping from the embrace of my eyes

fretting not to look back

engulfed by the distant cars and affluent luggage

i, too, was swallowed whole

but by the memories which deprive our shoulders bliss

and not the restorative cure of tomorrow

our childhood smothers my unconscious

drowning me until i am drunk on each sip of laughter

i bury myself with the false recollections of you

as the present sways forward without us

yet i come to

torn and scarred from nostalgia’s control

the foreignness of your name seizes the tip of my tongue

and i stumble and tremble after you

i grasp the tenderness of your wrist

the very flesh that could heal my soul

as the words cascade from my mouth like freed doves

but i cannot hear them over the sound of your presence–

so large, i can’t bear to drink it all in

but the train steers forward beside the clouds

and now you ask who i am

as if i have not relived our star-crossed beginning

a thousand times over.