i hate you
i love you
i hate you all over again
i see you with your paper skin
gasping for air like some sallow hagfish
chained to a blasted heath
there is uneasy, aimless talk 
you shuffle back to your bubble
back to your safe haven
i find you curled up
within your pillow reef
surrounded by stone feathers
the challenger deep
would be easier to cross
than the rift that you left
in the heart of me
and so i do not reach out
i do not allow you to see
that i cannot imagine my life
without you in it