That night when you kissed me, I left a poem in your mouth, and you can hear some of the lines every time you breathe out. - Andrea Gibson

I wish you were here.
Autumn is the hardest season.
The leaves are all falling
and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground
and the trees are naked and lonely.
I keep trying to tell them
new leaves will come around in the spring,
but you can’t tell trees those things,
they’re like me,
they just stand there
and don’t listen. — Andrea Gibson, from “Photograph,” Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns (Write Bloody Publishing, 2008)

You are not weak just because your heart feels so heavy.

I keep remembering being fifteen at Disneyland wearing my best friend's hoodie like it was my boyfriend's class ring. How many years it took me just to touch her face. How many years I sent praying my heart could play dead 'til the threat was gone. 'Til the world changed. 'Til history was history.