beneath every comforter you own,

we lie entangled in a fragile embrace,

yet only your silhouette emerges 

a ghost of the warmth i once knew.

i savor the dying embers of your heat,

tracing every delicate curve

with trembling fingertips,

as if each contour were etched from my own longing.

our eyes do not meet,

and our lips do not touch.

i call out your name

and silence screams back,

a playful echo of our unspoken grief.

to crave you

so completely, so painfully

in this fleeting moment

is my undoing.

to want you as you are

in this moment

is truly despicable on my part.

how can you provide

what you lack?

how can you ever offer

what remains so heartbreakingly absent?

as we lie here, stiff and unwilling,

i am reminded of the connection 

between beast and machine.

this is not the man i know.

sure you are still mine,

for a brief moment

we are strangers

and that excites me.