the touch of you

Those moments

the fleeting flashes

of blissful happiness

and great despair

that you live within

always flood my mind

at the most inconvenient of times

I remember your wayward smile

as I check out my groceries

Our foreheads pressed together

as we wept for your life

when I look in the mirror

The way that you would bat your eyes at me

as I brush my teeth

and I smile,

and remember your goodness

but in the darkness

the same haunting memory

comes back to me

For months

I would let my fingers

slowly roam

your skin

so I could remember

the way it felt under mine

imprinting every square inch of you

on my brain

so that somehow

I would never forget

the touch of you

For  I knew

there would be a time

I would struggle

to manifest your skin’s memory

so as the night comes

my mind lilts to sleep

and I fight

to conjure up

my caress

yet it has faded

from this new world

and I sigh

with surrender

I knew that one day

I wouldn’t be able to remember at all.

Photo by Evie S.