Bruise - All I Have Left of You
"All I Have Left of You"
Black and blue
and yellow and purple
all form an almost
perfect circle
signalling a day of careless
unconcern
or, too much concern
as a rustle of fabric
scurries across the room.
An exclaimation issued forth
as my thigh meets the edge
or your school bedpost.
I cursed, three days later,
when again I stood up
too quickly and reissued
the bruise again.
And I wore it like a war wound,
proudly proclaiming my clutziness.
I relished and nursed it
like a child of my heart.
But now, a week or so
has past, and when I look
the vibrancy is fading.
A pale ghost remains.
That bruise is all I have
left of you, all I have to
help myself remember
that you were real.
Will you fade away, too,
when from my thigh
my mark of you
is gone?
Black and blue
and yellow and purple
all form an almost
perfect circle
signalling a day of careless
unconcern
or, too much concern
as a rustle of fabric
scurries across the room.
An exclaimation issued forth
as my thigh meets the edge
or your school bedpost.
I cursed, three days later,
when again I stood up
too quickly and reissued
the bruise again.
And I wore it like a war wound,
proudly proclaiming my clutziness.
I relished and nursed it
like a child of my heart.
But now, a week or so
has past, and when I look
the vibrancy is fading.
A pale ghost remains.
That bruise is all I have
left of you, all I have to
help myself remember
that you were real.
Will you fade away, too,
when from my thigh
my mark of you
is gone?