physical intimacy

 

art by Ksenia Vishnevskaya

I sit across from you at the breakfast table and watch you try to eat the food I made you. 

I put my heart out on a plate, place it by your folded hands, and you say you aren't really that hungry anyway. 

Last night, I asked you if you loved me and you said our physical intimacy does not bother you. 

I'll take that as a no.

I sit across from you and wonder if you can hear the sound of my stomach dropping and dropping and dropping until it's right about ready to crash onto whatever floor it meets. 

You take a small bite out of that sandwich. I'll take that as a no. 

I sit across from you and wonder when it's going to stop hurting so much. I wonder if it ever will. My chest aches.

I take that as a no.