A Cleansing

If you carried with you

the knowledge of a lost loved one:

This singular exposed moment, in which

your mouth slightly opens in a sigh

[silence.punctuated]

Peering into it, past your molars,

reaching the esophagus, to just below

the sternum, to the core wherein

is our dearest… darkest

well of disquiet.

In that vacuum,

of your individual pains, I would that

I could gather / permeate them from you.

Me wringing out my hands.

Them flowing to the grate.

Another sigh, this time

of reprieve—your eyes

lighten / your heart

lightens.

And then would mine.