Tell me what the world is like
for my eyes have been sealed shut,
encrusted by flecks of sleep
for too long
and I’ve forgotten.
I miss the warmth
of a fellow human’s breath
upon my ashen skin
and I miss the image
of slender, screeching gulls flitting gracefully
over a stillborn lake.
Tell me what love is like.
I miss the look that lovers give each other
like there’s nothing else in the universe
except each other and a couple
of stray stars.
And I even miss the emptiness
the shuddering sobs within a locked room
when it has ended
knowing that, in a week,
it will no longer matter.
Tell me, my dearest, what life is like.
Does yours have a purpose now
or are you still wandering
through roadmaps and photographs
lies and sweet-nothings?
Are you a part of the universe,
just as I once was?