Phantom Limbs

In this house of bones, I reanimate

All that has been lost. Paint pink puddy scabs

Over skin-raw drywall, smooth the nail bed,

Upholster tissue. I tend to the hearth

And this heart. In return, the body shrieks

At this reconstruction. How dare I play

God. The phantom limb, more alive        

Than its living half, groans at each toe curled,

Fumes at its own existence. When you died, 

Breath rattled the ribs of my hollowed-out chest

Ice sweat slick down my spine, dread calcified in the gut

How dare you lovely hearthrob seize my heart

How heavy is the dead weight of your memory

Pain is just the body remembering. 

Hollow

Thumb

Rattle

Hollow lungs rattling

Empty ballon

Hollowed- out

Breath rattled through my hollowed-out chest

I traced my hands over where you used to be

Drew an outline 

I clawed for your ghost

Grasped at air

Dug into my own palm trying to hold your phantom hand

I squeezed for you hand

I claw the air where you used to be

I cling to where your hand used to be

I cling to the air where your hand used to be

I can feel you with me, in every bone of this body

Sing your ghost to sleep

Claw at the air and feel the weight of your hand

The sweat of your palm

Palpable

Land in the sweat of your palm

Fling

Warm to the touch

Bless you for staying