What's true is true

I was made to learn that what’s true is true, no matter where you go

Oxygen weighs the same on the moon and under the sea and in the almost non-existent space between our lips in the pause that comes just before I kiss her

I can wish things weren’t so

But they are so just the same

She doesn’t love me anymore.

I can stand on the moon

I can sink to the bottom of the ocean

I can kiss her a thousand times

And that doesn’t make the truth any less true

It doesn’t take the sting out of her empty stare

Or put the warmth back into her cold hand

It doesn’t make her heart ache every time I accidentally brush against her

I beat my fists until they bled and showed up on her steps only half alive

Before she could shut the door, I slipped inside

She watched with a blank expression as I frantically emptied my heart out into all her little jars

Carefully, she put the lid on each one and shattered them one-by-one, against the wall

I cringed as the same lips that had touched mine a thousand times whispered one word, over and over

No.

She said it until it crossed the ten steps between us, forced itself inside my mouth, and settled at the base of my throat

Numb, I walked home

And there, in my chair, I tried to change the no

I tried to bend and stretch and mold it until it became something different

But in the dim light I felt the tears come because I knew

What’s true is true, no matter where you go