I swear I saw your reflection in the back door window when I went to take the trash out.

The back of your head like we’d passed each other in the hall just a second ago.

You wore the blue Kurt Cobain sweater I thrifted for you that time.

So grateful for the sight of you, I didn’t turn around to see if you were real and instead stared at the glass, conjuring.

You. Eyes crinkling at the corner

You....

Wide awake again

Night somewhere in its middle

Neighbors up early

Ceiling shadows from

Late night lives out the window

Or early morning?

At seven a.m.

Steam dances out my window

Beauty like clockwork

The sleepless facing

East would trade the morning star

They are not grateful...

A bucolic scene of a maiden and a cow

On the side of the blue and white pitcher

That sat on the kitchen table

Holding grape hyacinth and daffodils

Cut from the front yard this morning

The opposite of Christmas

Morning when you wake the house

Anticipation, getting ready for school

Laying low, leaving enough extra time to change

In case there’s a new outfit (please be cute)

Walking downstairs ...

There was a relief in feeling the storm’s approach

Something to relieve the pressure swelling in the room, the days,

The things she won’t let herself say.

As the air shifted, there was a moment of heavy silence

A signal to birds and bugs to stop their summer noises

A signal for circular winds to take up their songs.

A signal that it was too late to return home unaltered.

Waiting for a reason ...

She watched him come back into the ballroom after another cigarette outside. Even two hours in, the wedding guests still followed his blue hair with pursed lips. His face was stone as he stood at the edge of the dance floor, looking for her and it didn’t soften when he found her. She owed him for this.

They’d been half-heartedly dating for about a month and would probably wind up half-hearted fr...