You say you're there for me,
then walk toward the elevator
without seeing my dried tears.
I know you had to leave -
I am not your project;
you are not my savior.
I wish you could have stayed
could have sat with me on the floor
as we watched people clock out for the day,
wondering how they come and go
without entertaining a thousand deaths.
The wind shakes my favorite tree outside;
I feel my body decomposing.
I want to stretch - stretch - stretch - my limbs
like the heartsick branches,
but instead, I curl up until my bones ache.
I want you and him and her back.
But none of you can protect me.
I am uprooted, unloved, untethered.
I am a storm I created
and a shelter I’ll never find.
