For Paul

by Celina Villagarcia

In a hundred years         your fingers
too frail         to braid with mine
legs too burdened by
time’s hand to walk         with me,

I will live the rest of my hundred years
lying in the same bed         as you
mirroring your hollow sack of bones

I will inhale the thousand years of you

My thin skin might skim yours
two cobwebs floating on branches
                                       your

labored tha –tha –thumping
             your breath filling

                                          my own
                    lungs

. . . and I will whisper
I love you

My hundred years
are sacred cows
wandering

in your pasture