We were time

You are not here.
Words no longer matter.

When memory retreats,
your scent seeps into the present.
And every touch becomes a fragment
of what we once were.

What were we?
Drops of water sliding down our bare skin.
The warmth of our bodies.
The silence of our lips.

We were time —
the best time there ever was.
We were eternity
pierced by the present.

When what is wraps itself
in the soft web of what was,
we cradle ourselves in thoughts —
our thoughts —
never spoken aloud.

Because what is born between two
needs no words.
It asks for eternity.

A second of trembling stillness —
we stop breathing.

One day,
one of us will go on.
The other will choose the unknown.

But in truth,
we both always choose it.