Upstate

Yes but can you imagine living here? she says as you trudge the three blocks to the other end of town under a tropical sun. It amazes you the ways people choose to live their lives; or perhaps just as often how their lives are chosen for them. The old house creaks, at dusk the rabbits move into the backyard and the soles of your feet turn dirty with summer. Later, in a quiet room, two small bodies wrapped themselves around me at strange angles and demanded comfort; I sank into the safety we had created and thought I have never been broken. The heart heals and heals anew, I have comfort enough for a small army, you must understand I was born alone but fill my cup by carrying yours, this is the heart I was asked to own. It breaks and breaks but is not broken.

There’s a reason we whisper our lover’s name in the night.