Lifting lips
From a now swollen nipple
Grinning down at brown pools
Meant for drowning in
Expectantly watching
for some sign of love
on the edge of reason
weary from the games
the unpredictable turn on-turn off-turn on again
eternity stretching out
from your lips to mine
facing each other
wrapped up in tangled limbs
it’s time for the reckoning

choosing that exact moment
to respond
you say
“I don’t love you”- “that’s why”
smiling
like a man surveying his dirty deed
you ask “are you angry with me?”
short of breath
I bite the end of my bottom lip
from inside
determined not to let you see me cry
I let my gaze stand
Though I don’t see you anymore

Falling down your flight of steps
The same night
Slipping
Losing balance
Raw-cool-cement
jolts me back
Blood springing from my spine
The stinging hurt
Comforts me
Sucking away attention from the pools
On the verge of overflow

I want to run away – break free
from your
suffocating embrace
leave you to your tangled desires
uncertain caresses
your almighty confusion-dammit

I promise myself
I will- Yes- I will
tomorrow

Sashikala Premawardhane