Your Likeness Crystalizes, a poem

Our shift is long over, but the lingering

echo (echo)

of fluorescent lighting throws the memory

into bright relief; your likeness crystalizes

there in the dark spaces beneath my resting

eyelids a small smile just a tug

at the corners of your lips and a warmth

like the soft brush of rough fingers

against my cheek. I try to hold your gaze

as we chatter and fidget nervous

excited my stomach clenches

my heart racesracesraces and I wonder if I

should have kissed you in that moment

or if I should have run away from that small

glimpse of happy

but I do neither and now as I lean

into the worn cushions of my couch

picturing it picturing you picturing us

I remember something else. I remember

where you are and the curtain closes

because you’re at home asleep

with her

and I’m alone dreaming.

@ 2015 by Katrina Galvez, originally published in Humid 8