The only price to pay for breathing you in
was knowing I may never be able to let you go,
that my lungs would fold around this essence
and never care to know another.

If I exhale, I want to come with you,
float through the air and touch your face,
warm your palms like flesh can record echoes
and keep replaying intertwined fingers.

If all we know can be documented this way,
ink scrawling your eyes into each star,
penning the sky on your skin
so you can watch over me at night,
your warmth captured with stills,
every season's frame preserved

You know that I would choose the winter,
that I'd inhabit the dark icy air
and find your fire flickering.

Because I don't want to just be
a shadow of what you wanted,
I want to be the afterglow
pouring over you on autumn nights.

An embrace that you keep through the months
like the words I've been able to summon
that reach through every divide,
something to fill the hollow of any absence.

The only price to pay was knowing
I may not be able to let you go,
my lungs would constrict around this essence
and find a way to make each cell last.

If I exhale, just let me come with you,
we'll spiral and dance together through the air
and no longer sustain ourselves with echoes,
with a shadow of what you may have wanted.

If all we know can really be subtracted,
word by word, symbol by symbol,
capture me with ink and glyphs,
preserve every single cell

Until the cold touches your heart once more
and I can flicker through your sky,
entirely cover you in our embers
and join you for the winter.