Phantom Limb - Seeming

Like the merest hint

Of a stillborn twin

You pushed into a memory

Broke what I had been

Tore my molted skin

With your gentle phantom limb

There’s another place

Made of veins and vine

Where I pull you hard against me

And I’m interlaced

And I’m intertwined

In your steady phantom limb

How we must glow

Yes I bet we look like snow

I can see it—well almost

Like a camera sees a ghost

There’s no fingerprint

But there’s no mistake:

You were here when I was empty

And I twist and flinch

And I double take

When I feel your phantom limb

Like the merest hint

Of a stillborn twin

You burned into a memory

Broke what I had been

Tore my molted skin

With your fatal phantom limb

And I am not here

No I was never here

This I whisper in your ear

How we must glow

Yes I bet we look like snow

I can see it—well almost

Like a camera sees a ghost

How we must shine

In our moment after time

I can all but hear the chimes

They are long and loud and slow

I can feel your phantom limb

Yes you hold me from within

I can see you clear and close

Like a camera sees a ghost