Lioness

When I was with you we were an estuary
I don’t know if I come from the river or the sea
All I know is you are both my opposite and my reflection
And where we meet, all salt and mouth and convergence
We were the meeting point of a mountain and a valley

From a distance it is clear that we are inverted forms of one another
Should our mountain crumble it would fill the valley to our brim
Creating flatland where there was once chaos
But until that beautiful collapse we wonder where you begin and I end.
We were two bodies running out of room in this world
We carved space in ourselves for the other to borrow

For the other to burrow
I wake up sometimes with ghost traces of your lips on my bone
And my arms holding your phantom
Frame as you drift away
We were roots and soil
The splendor of a tide pool

We were giants
But for now we can’t swallow the things that separate us
Lioness please grab me again by the scruff of my neck
And lick the wounds I’ve made trying to taste my own blood