Writer’s tip: if your character is stuck, give them the freedom of verse to sort it out. Or dig themselves a deeper hole.
The first touch, electric Years drop to the floor like leaves in the fall My hands remember the feel of loving him I can travel this landscape without a map or guide My body’s memory comes alive This is being a body, it exalts All peaks and hills and valleys Monsoon season and then away away away The second touch, fire licking up his reinforced walls blooming across the ceiling of our sanctuary embers on the marital bed He yells and yells and yells and people think it’s part of the show while I flail to save the little boy who can’t stop drowning in moonlight The third touch, scorched earth The aftermath of conflagration Isolation in bed with you heavy asleep on my shoulder knee bruising my hip In a month that bruise will be all that’s left of the future we tried to build I will wish for this bruise to fade but it will linger for months outlasting your commitment -rjm
