Listen, I know that every seven years our skin cells get replaced,
but there were still days when the men of your past begged you home
just so they could touch you again and make new memories
for the next seven to come. You can lose all the molecules
that someone else affected, but still be the same person
you were before they fled from your system.
After every equinox, when the coffee pots have been emptied
and the beds have been stripped clean, there’s still another month
waiting on the horizon to burn away the old one.
And look, I know most people will go their entire lives
without ever wondering how many wineglasses it would take
to drain the Pacific Ocean dry, but then there are others
who would rather replace every single drop of water with alcohol
and get drunk on a feeling shaped like wave caps.
What matters most is whether you keep drinking
till the waves close over your head, or stop when they lift you up
and toss you out to shore, dripping wet and gasping for air,
but still breathing.