Party for Two

The silverware drawer is heavy tonight.

I found a candle, pink and bent,

stuck to a thick rubber band—

like a secret I forgot I meant.

Tomorrow I’ll be thirty-two.

The quiet makes me count the years back

to when the store was already closed

and the sky was a bruised kind of black.

You found the box of vanilla wafers.

The yellow cardboard was damp at the base.

I haven’t felt that light since then,

watching the sugar melt on your face.