soap

the water was warm between us. we stood close enough that sometimes hands, hips touched over plates.

*

we both washed,

but neither of us could quite decide whose hands belonged beneath the water

*

we kept reaching for the tap, stealing it from each other, arguing over the clogged drain left in its wake

*

outside the evening gathered slowly at the windows, and i did not say that the soap had gotten into my exposed cuticles and had already begun to hurt.

*

there was something tender in the way you held each piece of glass—careful at the edges, turning it beneath the water until nothing remained but its own clear surface.

*

i watched you and thought of all the things a person can hold without ever being able to keep.

*

the sink emptied.

*

i looked away.

*

later I found one glass still sitting beside the sink,wet beneath the dim street lights seeping in through outside

*

i dried it slowly.

*

i could not bear to put it up.