The Day You Kept Me from Harming Myself,
I Embraced You as You Left My Side
—for Tula & Jenn
I remained silent, my movement & stillness familiar,
your voices light over me, laughter leaving me no strength
to end it all.
My heart sparked despite itself,
& your warmth dusted me; you held my eyes
to yourself, cupped my ears
in your hands until I heard God wash
against me, hold me abandoned in floods,
wounds cleaned & smoothed.
How clever we molded together,
reached depths no light touches. You each drew me closer,
hid me within you, not from you: the last look of you filling my eyes
with yours, & I remember the looks,
how it told me you both would never leave.
Ariana D. Den Bleyker is a Pittsburgh native currently residing in New York’s Hudson Valley where she is a wife and mother of two. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with her family and every once in a while sleeps. She is the author of three collections, nineteen chapbooks, three crime novellas, a novelette, and an experimental memoir. She hopes you’ll fall in love with her words.