bury this thought hold me forever

I am a soft cloud of marshmallow cream sting

I seeve in and dart out

I hold your hand until it hurts I'm a fire
emoji

one time
you fell in love
and it kept happening what does it mean
to fall apart

one time
I was a stupid stupid song that wouldn't stop

in a version of this idea
all the sounds disappear
and all that is left
is the headache of a high note a memory
of something fuller and
unmissed

leave softness for others

I would like to say
that I am okay
my reality intact
although the picture
is shaking

where

do you get
all that confidence I
disintegrate

when
touched I exist but
am fading

dear you,
please send I plenty of pictures
please be attentive please:
hold your perspective
with both hands
before the mirror
let's see

some ideas can
be found

in a vacuum
but pronouns carry
on

(poetic? I?)

or, when waking
most people will stretch
grab a small piece of
technology, filled

with soft-
ness caress
who they are
in there: leave the rest
for others

things have happened since we stopped being friends

the other day
I discovered music
it was an impossible thing
all shiny slippery pillowy soft a
thing you should see
but can't

Julia Tolo is a poet and translator based in New York. Her chapbook, August, and the snow has just melted is available from Bottlecap, and her recent poems and translations can be read in or are forthcoming from Seventh Wave, Copper Nickel, Belladonna Chaplet 189 and Asymptote.