when did your skin
become a prerequisite
to me
not falling
apart?
and when did waking up to your touch
become necessity,
no longer merely just
a passing occurrence in the morning light?
didn’t I spend
eighteen years sleeping alone?
(every night feels alien apart from you)
didn’t I use to fall asleep
without your warm breath in my hair,
your arms around my sides?
now all those sixty-five hundred and seventy two nights
seem like they never happened-
when did you become
the air I breathe?
ka - 2013
ka - 2013