Chipping away at cracked fingernails. I smell your cologne mixed with the nighttime air and I remember how summer is supposed to feel. Marmalade skies open up in front of me and I swear I’m driving towards heaven. I guess I’ll just have to keep talking to ghosts in the meantime. And maybe long ago I ignored every warning sign and dove right down the bottom of a bottle- too bad I can’t swim. I’m still learning which waters are poisonous. But incase I lose myself, I’ll post my name in the lost and found so that you can decide what to make of me- keep me lost or declare me as your own. The sadness broke me down like a thousand lies, but I found the strength to stand up with every truth tucked under my tongue. As each summer dismantled, you wore that cologne until it became a permanent part of you and I tore apart my nail beds until they bled. Watched you wrap my wounds without even touching me. Taught me how healing began without saying a thing. -AMT