You and This Starfish

I gave you love
Measured in empty cans
Cigarette filters
And the blackest corners of the night

I, An anonymous starfish
- suction cups
Extended
Waiting for water
For time
For you

And there were never reproaches
Or retold anecdotes about how
I had taken to cutting skin,
How fingertips wept
Missing stubble of chin
How I had Grown
Glass cup ears
I pressed to doors
Waiting to make sense
Out of this
Crumpled paper
Heart of mine

I gave you love
Like the faint rustle of pages
Like silence between exhales
Wedged between the difference
Of dying and living
Love like earthquakes
Exactly one month apart
Like half standing houses
Avalanches and mudslides.
Passive aggressive
Like
The curve of the blade
As it feeds into
The hungriest flesh
I gave you love
Like all of me
Unfolding
Unwinding
An golden thread
Spun like and orange’s peel

And you
Never moved
An inch
From where you stood
You creature of
Empty rooms
Cardboard boxes
And vacancy signs

I understood
Starfish
Have no place
In life like yours
As I pressed
Glass cup ears harder
Unto your chest.
And listened to the heartbeats
Of your Silence.