you looked so soft and pink
and vulnerable -
laying on the hospital bed,
swollen with life and
other people's future

and your hand
was warm and moist,
like the time you held mine
on the stick shift

and we drove all night
and you showed me the ditch
you hid in as a child
for almost two days

and the day
i promised
we would be together forever

and the morning
you put your hand on my shoulder
like we had been

and the night i told you
we would not