breathing, subracted


1. this is not intimate like
watching me put makeup on or
chop vegetables and cheese
as if i were a one-woman, day by day
lifestyle show;

this is intimate like my labia
gently pushed aside by your fingers
to reveal the center of me
shared only with you,
unbeknownst, as you say.

2. my intentions
are questionable
at best
and eyebrow-raising
at worst.

3. there is personal
and there is Personal--
i try to avoid
capital letters but
i do not always succeed.

4. i used to think of sleeping alone as
a solitary bliss but
now it is simply
sleeping,
minus you--
like life
minus breathing.