This Crooked Barn

I used to put miracle gro in your cornflakes,

when your ankles dangled centimeters from the floor.

The world slipped out from under you,

unkind to rotting joints and swollen ankles.

Pulling from the chewing gum,

the side of me that died with my curiosity.

Tonight, I’ll feed you reasons.

Hoping that since hibernation,

they stop becoming poison

and instead, stop you from leaving me.

Stop you from losing your limbs on tiled floors.

Help find a way to connect your back to your hips.

I will become Herculean to carry you forever between my shoulders.

Panting through borrowed time,

chewing through maggots,

praying to a horned god to feed you swallow’s wings.

But,

love will not keep you here.

It does not do what it is told.