he was

still life

for all my pleading, leave me unfettered,
you heard all that i’d left unspoken.
forced the light, shine my transparency.

love, i never expected to wake so still-
life, for all its particulars, might’ve been different
and was; i found myself no longer pencil-sketched.

you painted the acrylic of hair,
carefully smudged pastels for skin,
left watercolors to pool inside of me.