a last lesson on leave taking

I have existed in your blood been chewed and sucked, spit in the dust with orange pips and cigarette butts. I have swum in your sight, floated in the salt and sand clammored tears down your face to know all the contours. I have stuck under your nails among the splinters and the skin, I have been breathed in and out slid along pulmonary twists, I have hid behind your knee, curled my toes in your hair, ingested bone ear and wrist, tasted all there is, and, melting ice on your palms and neck, kissed you good night, living your sundry parts, masking my need by your unblinking, moving in time to heartbeats, my favorite visceral words. The moment has come; old scars rent, clear liquid bursting in a rush to protect exposed tissues, then dripping with saliva, I am ready to close the shade, and relegate you to memory.