Sometime in May

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 Your laugh crackled on the end of the phone 

I could hear water in the speakers and the water in the tub wrapped around my legs as I pulled them up to my chest 

“I think about you more than once a day,” you said.

I paused,

 because really you didn’t say those things much. 

Several I miss you’s were smoothed over and when I recited a grocery list of all the things I liked about you, you gave me a sticky note.


A defensive laugh slipped out of me when I told you -

 “Well, of course I think about you more than once but I’m trying not to freak you out.”


My affection for you was always slipping between my fingers.

Tumbling out of faucets and over the edge of bathtubs, as I tried to mop up the water quickly.


I can hear the water dripping even after the pipes have rusted shut,

It’s as loud as your absence.







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