—after Emily Berry

My heart, the junkie, begging for the friction
of dust drug against pink membrane. Why
did you go away & leave me? I will not spare
late night calls & dropped pins, jotted down
notes in the eyebackrolling buzz, a pupil like the
wide & frowning moon, sick bodies begging
to copulate in the horrible light. My pulse
is a horse I’ve ridden for days, shaggy breaths
& bony knees crooning for collapse. It is a quiet
& bitter morning now, the river exhaling smoke
into the sky into the sky into the sky. I see you
far ahead, holding your arms tight in the chill of
early spring, wisps of hair kissing the mist of water.
When we have our reunion it is amiable, and I linger
on words I held inside for those months. When we
finish talking, you nod and step onto the waterface,
walk across to the riverfront, and leave me in the wake.