And I Burn

an ekphrastic based on Jeff Buckley's Lover You Should've Come Over

Today a gloomy image of you paraded my mind

It started with the rain

Which somehow smelled like you

Every drop, a lashing across my face

A reminder of my negligence

Your face, as heavy as the rain, flooding my thoughts

Your kiss, replaced with a tear I confused as a droplet

I walk

With my head down

Clothes sticking to my skin

I walk to the room where I waited for you

Where I continue to wait

I wonder if your walking home too

The rain filling you

Instead of drowning me

To the point of where I’m dry

My sluggishness loops me in an endless walk

Taking me further from that room

As I step closer to it

Pushing the door open to my own four walls

Where I have made my own bed

You’ve lied here before

When it wasn’t my own inferno

I writhe in sheets that burn me

The phone taunting me

Forcing a perpetual wake

I’m bathed in droplets of sweat

The incessant thought

“You should’ve come over”

Pouring in me

Prying my melted skin off the sheets

I punch in your number

And wait

And I burn

Waiting for your rain to come back and extinguish me