Unspool

When I am only half awake

Or when the sky is shelter grey

And safely covering,

I open

And I wince,

Allowing loss to course through

As I lose my coiled spool.

I hear your voice delicious,

Burrow in your watered soil eyes,

Remember chili pepper kisses

Now beneath a buried emptiness.

Unwinding

I spill out,

A moment

All released,

But never more.

My life awaits.

My wife's inside.

The kids expect me soon.

I slowly twist

And wrap the slack back up

Around the spindle of a broken second

Splintered off from the rest of the days.

I can't afford

To pour me out

Any more.

- 4/7/25