Ever burning. May 18, 2025

 I breathe deeply in my sleep, puffed up like a graduation balloon, long out of touch with the touch that inspires it, not quite certain what I feel his real or what I still ache for, even all these years later, even after all the connection has gone 

I breathe deep in my sleep dreaming of what I want rather than what I know is real, still sneaking glimpses, imaginary kisses touches too geographically remote to be at all possible, each breath stirring me up on the inside, giving fuel to what I imagine possible but cannot be possible, the dream more real than what I wake to when it expires, the fires still burning even when I think I want them extinguished, night after night, still burning, never quite able to stamp it all out before it flares up again