Made Unliminal
Who we are between long goodbyes
your silence broke my sleep,
some quiet of you I remembered differently,
parting could not be more eminent,
somewhere between four and five, ‘pen pals’ in due time,
I started counting when the floor creaked,
held my breath under the stained sheets,
‘don’t wanna feel your note on the nightstand,
swift, unrelenting pen strokes, the most telling,
I’m prepared to remember,
and for a still house in the wake of your exit —
but the morning of your becoming,
someone between half-goodbyes,
fleeting with your cold touch;
transforming — something else’s uneasy steps,
lamenting, laminate floorboards,
relinquishing you to the early sun,
every moment awake prolonging a slow dying,
from the porch, in one seat of every airplane,
disseminating your mystery like ashes.
This is the second poem, “Made Unliminal,” of my fifteenth poetry collection, DESCARGA. I dedicate this yet another lamentation to the perpetual horror that is the familiar and unfamiliar figure on the day of a loved one’s departure; someone between loved one and new face; initiation of when they move on; unspoken rituals.
— Chicano poet from Southern California
