it was a tuesday

your fingers

smelled of lilacs

and peppermint

and the inside

of my body

you bought me

easter candy

for valentine's day

so commenced

the excavation

you set a blanket

down

started at the center

hollowed a tunnel out

belly button deep

hoping

to unearth something

i was moth-eaten

and dusty

when you coughed

it echoed

my walls

bouncing the sound

back into

your mouth

i vibrated with

your breathing

if you hadn't gotten

tired

if you had dug

a little further

you would have found it

fossilized in iron

and nickel

preserved in amber

calcified like a tumor at my

core

the reason

i wrote this

maybe you'd have

understood

had you been able

to study it

to look at it

under a microscope

to hold it

maybe you'd finally know

where it originates

maybe you'd see

where all this comes from

and how it came

to rest

inside me