unerasable

i describe my life in pencil so that the secret
nakedness of our past can be rewritten,
so that with newly attempted composition
i am made over;
your character i have written out of the story
erased along with the nakedness and
shameful embarrassments
of a painful beginning
but when i turn back the page
i find that its my character
that no longer exists
my pages are empty
and eraser dust silhouettes my past
as we are both left behind;
then i realize that the future
is simply a retake
a do-over
so whether or not you reside in my future
i now know
i would have ceased to exist
if you were not at least
a part of my past.