this is all we have

31.1.26 - notes app on my phone

mugs three pomegranate seeds
and, a red-stained bowl
with a cuppa drank too quickly
and a mug still half-full.
day-steeped.
you've already washed
the mango
off of your hands,
tidied your hair, and
wiped cherry stains from
your neck—as pristine as the day
we met and found messy fruit
to share,
in a two-bedroom sharehouse

author's note

this one's hard for me, and i'm glad i managed to express a gentle ache that i still feel. having a relationship end one-sidedly is hard, but the thing i struggled most with at what point did the other person really check out and 'clean up' on their way out? i like the duality of the piece, where the perspective is that of someone wistfully looking at their partner and finding romance in the mundane, but on the flip end it's the other getting ready to leave it all and start again without you. the summer is still not over, yet you're done eating summer fruits.