"i've been through withdrawals before, but never anything like this" she said while she plucked the limbs off of 7 different species of grasshoppers. labeling each joint with small scraps of paper.
as a dream analyst she knew what to expect. but kept the future hidden from him with a desperate hope of changing it. over 36.4 years her body had become a shrine to him. a tattoo from a weekend by the sea. a bite mark on her shoulder. the limp from their year in cameroon. sunken red eyes from years of tears. lines surrounding her mouth from all the laughter.
cleaning up the spilt coffee with old newspapers and winding the clock back a few more days. grasshopper wings buzzed and glass cracked. steam from the furnace filled the air and curled the edges of every photograph.
"3 1/2 weeks is good enough".

'sometimes it's hard to sleep' she replied.
and thousands of miles away he decided that he would spend every hour she was awake thinking about her. hoping for some telepathic miracle. every morning reading the spilt coffee grounds for news of his distantly tired love. every afternoon sending bottles filled with babies breath and chamomile tea out to sea. every night chewing the morning coffee grounds to match her anti-sleeping patterns.
but on an ocean of oil and ink, she still couldn't sleep. and he still couldn't dream of her.

14 months at sea with lifetimes to go. constant staring contests with the horizon leave irises bleached and dreams lucid. 3 chipped mugs full of spiced oriental firewater a day. 16 trunks full of 43% clothes and 57% moths. 5 blank paged books. except for the 1 sentence.
'dark is filled with card games with ghosts and light with coffee ground messages and whale toothed smiles.'
turn every bone in your body around. don't look back. eventually the ship will disintegrate due to high percentages or salt in the water.
then.
you can stop.

distillery towers go up and you run away. dew settles and rust puddles. the sun goes down and is chased up by tire yard rooster calls.
34% of a lifetime later. the alcohol has rusted through the towers north and northwest framework. you chase after the one you ran away from.
should you stay .in. the stolen shopping cart the crippled fire escape the mattress surrounded by studio lights the blood stained bus the plague filled 5th story room.
the problem is/was/will be.
'you never understood love'

radio ghost records float through the dusty air. black lace and empty cigarette holders are washed away in contraband whiskey rivers. pupil-less eyes run up walls made of dirt and glitter. thousand toothed mouths light matches with one smile.
faded choruses sing.
turquoise feathers melt.
electric smoke settles.
the phonographic telephone rings.
'when are you coming for me?" and echo on line twenty three said.
then. a city wide black out and a dial tone.

7996 km away. separate hands grew from small to large. blue eyes thought about of green eyes.
10 518 975.3 minutes later blues eyes looked at green eyes. ukulele strings and tea cups. rabbit dreams and fox tails.
within 5 063.2511 hours there was going and coming. blood and bare skin. smiles and bite marks. traps and chases.
75% of a year after that. sense memory and knife fight scars. green eyes looked at blue eyes.
.the love existed in the past present future.

water filled air and floating deserts. the 2am rooster crows and you walk home with an armful of dead magnolias and decks of cards. at 4.49am elongated fingers pull the 3 of hearts. the moon deflates but the sun doesn't come up.
'you're in all of my nightmares and all of my dreams'.