callous

and this is where i fall apart, bleeding
but not as we know it.

  you emptied me of sunsets, of the sweet scent
  worn by summer air,

  of the silence found in longing, the wish
  for something far away.

you scraped off a layer of my skin,

there were dancers and drifters, bound by
rhythm but not by time.

(i was a child, wandering, sipping the atmosphere
like tap water.)

you demanded truth in layers of secret pathways,
but lost yourself in tangled ribbons,

choking us both like frightened snakes.