Chicago

Staring at
tracks
where you vanished
the soft dimpled smile
lips burning with 
every encounter
fire imprinted on my neck

but all of this
is imagined
a make-believe world
where I close my eyes
you live waiting for me
to turn
my cheek
grasp your hand
jumping together into
shadows of trees
grass blanket beds
warm bodies
wrapped under leaves

now sitting 
the footprints faded
in-love with the waiting
feeling a mimicked pulse
suffocating in silence
where you left me.

Nikki Lockhart