Nothing
by Melissa Mann
There is nothing between them
They’re wearing skin
They’re wearing air
They’re wearing a dream
Wearing a nightmare
They’re wearing each other
They’re wearing nothing
There is nothing between them
A nothing that’s the start of everything
Or the start of the end
Between them nothing but
Everything and the end
He’s on top of her
Shooting rubber bands at her heart
Shooting lies at her heart
Single white male lies
She lies beneath him
Looting silence from the dark
The silence of thoughts
Thoughts she shapes with her hands
In his flesh
Like warm, wet clay
Thoughts she cannot say
About this thing between them
This something
This everything
This nothing
She stares at the ceiling
At the shadows that tell her
She’s not there
Where her me should be
There’s nothing
He comes
He goes
She can feel the endlessness of him
In the lean of the mattress
She can feel him smiling
She can feel him lying
There
She can feel him wearing her
Out
She can feel him wearing himself
Wearing nothing
But himself
Whereas she
She’s wearing him
Holding his hand
Prints on her body
Holding his body
In her empty hands
Trying to hold onto his
Endlessness
Trying to hold onto this
Something
This everything
Before it becomes nothing
Before it becomes
The nothing between them
November 20th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I really, really liked this.
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Thanks for the feedback Emily - kind of you to take time out to comment. This one seemed to write itself, which was a bit bizarro, and unusually for me I wrote it long-hand in my notebook rather than straight to screen.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Hi, I thoroughly enjoyed this poem. Liked the way you wrote it too. Hope to read more of your work.
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