perhaps i handled it for a moment
but your last text was to me in some final
act of devotion to a girl who left
you in a shitty tavern-style restaurant for another man
who treats her like shit
the sirens sounded throughout the city in the
way they do in movies
signaling nuclear war had finally come
but when i sobbed, i sobbed for you and the year we spent apart
the year that became forever
i put on your clothes and tangled myself in your bed sheets
surrounded by the smell of you
i clutched your phone, memorizing the modernized act of love
that was me being the only girl in your messages
and as the threat of the end of the world became imminent
i was ready, ready to be with you
my bed sheets were wet when i woke up
and i was shaking in this unbearable way an animal does
when she’s cold
i too must have died in that dream, the bombs breaking me apart
in less than an instant
and still, when i came to, it wasn’t with you