Ash In My Throat

Coffee cups like

twin eclipses

The steam curls up,

then disappears

You stir your silence with a silver spoon And I breathe the

years between us

No daggers, no broken glass

Just porcelain quiet and a wilted laugh You mouth a question with

no sound

And I blink the answer back

The jukebox stutters something French I feel my hands age on the

bench The sugar stays untouched between us Time doesn’t argue—it just ends

Ash in my throat

(ash in my throat) Love doesn't scream,

it erodes

We walked on embers too long

Now all we’ve got is smoke

Ash in my throat (ash in my throat) No need to run,

we both know

It’s colder than goodbye

When nothing burns at all