Word

It was
how long ago?
that the word love
slipped from between us

Only the word love,
never the actions of kissing or cuddling
or fucking.
Just words.

Words in longing messages
that meant to stretch
like adolescent fingers over fifty miles
from my city to yours

Words in awkward phone calls,
and secret messages,
where I would sneak to a computer,
once, maybe twice a day,
to send and receive the word love with you.

and the few sweet words
in cursive, from your own hand
in a card late for Valentines day some years ago,
that was discovered by my parents
(that sits, still, in one of my drawers)
which made forbidden and thus stronger
the word love

So, why now,
years after the words,
the angry, hurtful, abandoning words,
after the loss of one sweet word;
why do the words of a song
playing on a radio,
a song from the mix tape you made me years ago,
keep me trapped in my car
in an empty parking lot,
remembering fondly the world love?