At two a.m.

‘I can’t love you’

You said

With a hushed voice

That secretly

Always

Made me think of caramels

Tumbling within a storm

‘I know’

My two-word reply

Whispered like a silent string

Of beads and pearls

And never

Would another hand so fragile

(Clinging still, to my arm)

Touch my thin lips

Or curl and flex and break

Like little moths to the light

‘You’re so warm’

You said

Curling further into

My side

While I listened still

For a quiet

Shuddering

Breath