the space above my ears.

Simon

Wheels on marble echo about the walls, dancing through the rows of pillars.

Voices mix, blur together like melted wax.

We would be holding hands if our arms weren't so full of things we probably don't need, but I look at you every now and then and you look at me from time to time, and on some occasions, our eyes meet and we smile, sharing a kiss without touching.

We don't know where we're going, blindly hoping we end up wherever it is by chance.

I'm sort of following you, you're sort of following me, so I don't know if either of us knows the other is clueless.

It's time to go.

We've salted the earth in front of us, been patted down by airport security and the threshold is inches from our fidgeting hands.

What we are crossing, I have no idea but at the very least I hope it is different.

Here, we're three-quarters bitter, less than a century away from pioneering an entirely new breed of fallen creatures.

All our time spent standing at a claw machine.

All our time spent fishing for an opportunity when we all knew damn well there was already one waiting for us at home.

It's been this long so I thought it would be many, many for all of the above, but it seems I've discovered contaminated youth somewhere I didn't expect to find it.

A boy in a man's body getting off to the smell of gun smoke, the sight of it too.

Sipping on liquid cement until his body is too heavy to move.

He's a liar, he even lies to the pictures on the walls.

Replaces his own brown eyes with green ones, green and decomposed.

I've charted his entire life from the minute he opened his eyes to the first time he tasted blood.

Charted the stars he could see outside his window, only the ones he could see, not all the ones that he knew were there.

We'll discuss it later; the maps and photographs are packed away in our carry-ons.

For now, we'll hold hands and wait in line.

You whisper a question into my ear.

"Yes, of course, bunny love," I reply.

I'm here with you because he couldn't buy you the world and you needed someone else to gift it to you.

I can't do exactly that, and you know that, but you also know I'd do anything to give it to you.

We could steal it, me wearing a ski mask and you driving the getaway car.

You suggest we tie him up and throw him in the trunk and I say "whatever you want."

In this one, "You" is a figure with millions of dimensions and I may only choose one of them to see.

I'll choose the one that feels.