writing: muscle memory ▲

i know i'm different than you remember

and it's not just the hair, or the clothes, or the perfume

if you know well enough,

which i know you do,

then you'll see it otherwise

in the carriage of my shoulders,

a little steadier than before

and in the lines around my eyes,

a little deeper than you'd remember

in the set of my lips,

bearing a little more truth than they ever knew before

it's in the way i rest my hands openly on the table

and the way my chin lifts when i talk to you

and my eyes don't fall to the crevices in the floor

i know you know it

and you might not recognize me for it

but just so you know,

it's the same warm heart beating behind my ribs

and that part of me will always know your name.