And I saved that Ninkasi bottle
from the last time I saw you.
I remember specifically
my roommate asked how we were doing
but she meant it innocently, as a friend.
We glanced at each other briefly,
I saw your eyes,
then your fingers as they clawed gently at the label.
Your fingers,
I’d written about them before
in another time and place
that seems now like a different life and a different world.
Anyway, I kept the bottle,
I keep it on my dresser,
sometimes I look at it and see the tiny folded corner,
the last thing I saw you touch.
