from Stirring

What Hitched Me Here

That I worry menopause will kill me
That when I see a plane overhead I forget myself
That when you’re not there I lose the scent
That I can’t rouse the snow from its coma
That I am not smart enough to know what it is
That I lost count
That there is a struggle going on all the goddamned time
That I can’t watch the sleet turn to filth another year
That I can’t explain
That your absence is omniverous
That I have spent my life as if listening to slippers cross a bedroom
That I have distilled the nativity down to the donkey
That to love you I must allow days to lengthen
and dig my fingernails into the night

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