Real

Abstract non-fictional characters surround you;
you want to hold onto them but your fear stops
every last ounce of strength to reach out
to grab, for one instant, tangibility in ghosts
skimming the soft recesses of your body.

You kiss to feel more alive but never live
more than the few seconds before everything
melts back into the floor and leaves you
curled inside yourself in the living room,
watching the others' stories unfold before you
just so you can feel like you do have a life.

Millisecond pauses are too long for me to
shut down a life built on avoidance,
perfectly sustainable before you came,
changed the way I felt the world;
I stare out the window at the snow falling,
millisecond shutter clicks capturing
single flakes I am too afraid to search for
before they melt back into the floor.

You need to harden, cool to solidify,
I need to freeze, cool to solidify;
Everything is real when we're together.