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Thirsty and the Night Is Old

Nina Puro

You were a rising star and I was falling
and the place we met was lit with shooting.

You are the cone around a dog’s head,
I the gash,
and alcohol the stitches.

You're a back road that I want to drive along, sip bourbon slowly.
I'm a supermarket without any lights on.

I was very tired
by which I mean drunk
but not so tired as to forget.

When I said I hated you or when I said I loved you
I didn’t mean it
but I didn’t not.

When I said I believed you, I should have told you
I sold belief to make rent a long time ago.

I want to remind you of everything we haven't done.
To forget you too. You're still the best thing
that never happened to me. Still a fishbone in
my throat. I only ever see your face inside the dark.

You're a door rusted open,
I'm a window painted shut
or a no parking
sign. You're the sound of a boat loud with waves
when there's no water near.

I’d like to give you
honey on toast forever. I’d like to give you all the tender
things.

We rise and fall, play chutes and ladders
with some life.
Nobody means to be where they end up.
We’re here.

Get close enough, we could dissolve like air.
Dissolve like pixels, like I don't know.