muscle memory

the tips of my fingers
recall your juniper hair
while the crook of my neck
feels your lips even still
and the tug of your hands
remains deep in my hips
and the prints on my arms
were sown there by your teeth
and though time steals the body
every year (so it seems)
you remain a most tangible ghost unto me

you remain a most tangible ghost unto me
and when i see the scars
that you kissed long ago
or the streams in my skin
through which growth likes to show
or feel the odd twinge
you had once massaged out
or the popping of joints
that once filled you with fret
so appears your whole spectre
eidolon of those nights
and those mornings i mourned
once our hearts lost their will