Some time ago, paper fused colors,
blending what should have been
a quiet slope echoing
distantly from now.

And I should have ignored
the river, the low
hills, just under the surface,

the marks of your kisses
making me a leper,
tissues of my limbs that held
what was once you.

See how we both smiled
in that photograph?
Arm in arm, content,
for that well-lit
shock of a second…