I see you
        cruel
in every never-again—

tides crinkled and colored
on an exhale, the sun deserting the sky;
a billion beginnings breathing before day
break—

taunting me
with the violence of nostalgia-to-be,
or more battering still:
the remembrance—
of forgetting you
     —I—to have never known you—

so please

     on your way out

          mar me