Hard Liquor and Tough Pills

All cards on the table, right?

You told me I’m one of those unique people who knows both at once

Ground and sky

Citrus Tinseltown

I take my jazz shoes off and step through your door

Hand to my stomach, about to release my grasp

Finally

Until you deny your hardwood’s sunrise

You’ve startled me.

I shove my guts back into my ribcage

Wide-eyed, mystified, kinesthesis cut loose

Shaking to maintain homeostasis

Unable to sit still the way I waited to

Feign homeostasis

I sever the years-long chord

Stumble out, forgetting my jazz shoes and

Fall ungracefully

My precious insides jumbled knots on the

Floor

Picked up by the terpsichorean milieu

Who’re versed enough to form exoskeletons on their roots

Something my foreign, novice feet have yet to learn

From the collective diaspora

A few hours later

Wild cats wail outside my window for the first time since moving in

It’s been months, and the living room is still empty

Save for some cardboard boxes and, already

A small collection to be moved out

Posters and pillows

Keeping each other company in the corner

Ready to be picked up by an intermittent resident

Ending their lease.