All the Same to You

Maybe if things had gone differently
We could lie on our backs
And pick the stars out of the sky with our tongues

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Maybe if things were different
We’d be swirling the oceans in our mouths, under the shelves of our cheeks
Until the blue-green-mystery of the water made our eyes mist over

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Maybe in another world
When I thread my fingers into the sinews of the soil
I feel your hands in the roots that strain under my palms

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In a place where time goes backwards
Maybe we pinch the ends of our days, and stretch them like balloons
Maybe we puncture tiny holes, and blow them up until they’re months

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Maybe in another timeline the seconds are years
And we can count each flap of a moth’s wings 
Until there’s no difference between dawn and dusk

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And if somewhere else the minutes spill over
We can curl on the ground and in the space of an hour
Let the mountains crust over our shoulders and plate our ribs

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Maybe in the places where past and future coalesce
We eat icebergs like sugar cubes
And suck on the moon until our gums glow white

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Maybe in the universe’s gaps
Time flowers in our lungs
Or we hover between its breaths

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But maybe if things had gone differently
I would never have caught your hand
And we would have done it all apart

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If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not live in maybes
If being here means that you are, too.