First 5 Days of Heartbreak

[bianca.a.palmisano]

Day 1:
Maybe breath is superfluous.
Anchored to grief like great stones
the lungs collapse
loss constantly arriving
 
Day 2:
Sick with sewage
swallowing boiling anger
there is no room in the kettle of my stomach
for perspective to crest over the burn
 
Day 3:
When the claxons ring out,
tamp down the reverberation with my hands
shivers held in place by tight tendons
that pain might not rend them to rags
 
Day 4:
Who lies to the wind?
Heartbreak floats on it,
featherlight and perfumed
like love, unbothered by its endless circles
 
Day 5:
Resolution is not
serenity in the filtered sun of empty hallways
but footsteps, grinding and heavy
inching forward one hour at a time