“it became sacred
only when they went away.”
– Adrienne Rich

You have left your fingerprints
all over my life.
And I can no longer read the past
that has protected me.
I have tried to scrub them off.
But the lines of my skin dissolved instead.
Feeding the illusion
that we were one.
Now you are gone.
So I am nothing.
Short of alone.
And miles beyond afraid.