I sit with you and watch you smoke cigarettes in front of me
you take photographs   but not here        not of me
I didn’t ask for sugar in my coffee   but I didn’t return it either
when the bus leaves you will be on it   when the sky opens you will be beneath it
one day in the future we will agree on something
              the first time we met           the last time we will kiss
              but these are kept safe between us
there is icing on the carrot cake and I let you finish it after you tell me
it is the only thing you have eaten so far today
the five words of overheard French you translate to me make me love you even more
though they are not beautiful words
your sketches remain upside down in my notebook   your name
               written across every page