Lonely for one night and 

alone forever 

don’t feel so different

take it from someone who has felt both and 

has felt, also,

the cold hands of a man who couldn’t 

love her

I’ve felt other hands too,

warmer ones and

hands that told me things

that mouths refused to

knuckles that dug deep into the spots that hurt and

I’ll tell you a secret:

they still do.

I have felt the balcony’s sunlight on the skin of my shoulders 

on a hot morning

light playing games with my eyes

up high above the ground

the ground where bad things have happened

safe

from some things maybe

but not from you.