Eating Unripe Peacock Feathers Poem by Audrey Stephenson

I was once alive
Only in your presence
But the months have been reeling in my limbs
Eyelashes falling to the floor
The electricity in your skin
The shimmering in your eyes
It's still there
But only for another
One who's name sounds like something found only in fairy tales
A face, I'm sure, that makes the sun rise every morning

You once held me
But now I'm sinking into the ground
Nourishing the lifeless things that will soon sing the praises of the strings that pull up the corners of your lips
The air in your lungs that makes you sing of the love you no longer feel for me
I delicately take each word
And I smile
Looking into your eyes
They used to caress me
Now they scrape against me
And I still try to smile
But Christ!
If I could rip the words right from your throat
I'd swallow them whole
And choke