Metonymy
It’s not like a love affair, it is a love affair.
— Maggie Nelson
Scientists say that memory feels in the body
like reality; there is no neurochemical difference:
it has been three weeks since you put your hand
on that tender spot by my right ear
and at night, before I sleep
I call up the feeling of your thumb
on my nape, our breathing
together soft, a caress I take with me
into the cold for when I need it most—
which is to say, I miss you.
Which is to say, even in your absence
I feel adored, alive.
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Robin Silbergleid is the author of several books and chapbooks, most recently In the Cubiculum Nocturnum (Dancing Girl Press). With collaborators on The ART of Infertility, she is co-editor of Infertilities, A Curation (Wayne State). Born and raised in the Midwest, she currently lives in East Lansing, Michigan where she teaches at Michigan State University.
🙏
Thank you for sharing, and evoking, the balm of memory’s living adoration.
❤️