Miss Your Face

Photo by Domingo Alvarez E on Unsplash

On one level, this is an angry little SFD this morning, a reaction to demands for attention from people whose absence revealed a deep relief. And yet, I experience this as a bit of joy. A bit of sloughing off the remaining bits of guilt and obligation that were really making my skin itch. I wonder — what about you? What are you sloughing off?

This message comes almost exactly a month after the last one:

"Finally getting around to it! (busy month!!)

Is there a time in the next week you're available?

I miss your face."

***

Bless your heart, but

the whole world has been missing faces

for over a year now and --

in that long, quiet breath

where only I and my Beloved saw my face --

I realized the only thing I owe

is tenderness to myself,

respect for the urgings of my body.

(My lungs contract when I see your message.

You don't take my breath away.

You suffocate me.)

I owe you nothing.