Parting Drapes
How did you survive the frost
knowing the book would close,
music would stop, a pulse would quit,
and you would be left in a room
surrounded by empty chairs?
Six long months with death for drapes
your hands were always drawing them.
Back and forth, the steel screeched
as if it were an oil rig
plumbing a desert for hope.
You messed with even valances,
tugging at puffs as if this skirt
could ever hang over the going bone.
Inviting in the hiding sun,
blue batiks of fading skies
becomes commitment's old career.
You sign forever in the sand;
someone kicks it in your eyes. 

All palms are idle in the end,
tortilla husks that speak
of curdled, passing meals.
Little scraps of ivory moons
bequeathed to soil, then covered up.
Rage drops anchors in the mud
and dying sails the fitful sea,
testing every rope we own.
You kept his college photograph
in every room you wandered through
touched the glass as if to print it with a wish.
Fed him ice chips, spoons of yogurt,
watched the drips deliver fluid to the sand,
packed his watch and wedding ring
took it home and stored it there
where every clock had lost its dial.
Adoring him was not a chore
even when his face was ash.

Kurt Hummel was in love with Blaine Anderson from the moment they locked eyes in the small coffee shop on the corner in New York City. Blaine spilled his coffee all over himself and Kurt had arrived with napkins to help the gorgeous stranger. They started talking, and from that very moment, they were hooked on each other; both of them attending the same college, and living in the same apartment complex. It was coincidence, and the one that started off their wonderful life together.

Every moment they spent together was absolutely amazing. Every loving touch, every gentle kiss, every soft-spoken word that seemed to convey so many emotions. Kurt was attending school for Fashion, and Blaine was attending for performing arts; and both of them worked at the same coffee shop they worked at.

Just looking at them, even a complete stranger could sense the love they had for each other. The way their hands fit so perfectly, the way they walked with their shoulders brushing past each other, the way they looked at each other; like nothing could ever go wrong.

But 2 years into their relationship, something does go wrong, and Blaine Anderson is given only a short time to live. What is Kurt Hummel supposed to do as he watches the love of his life suffer? What is he supposed to do as everything that makes sense, everything he loves, starts to slip through his fingers?

That's when Kurt asks Blaine to make a list of things he wants to do before he dies; it's all they have to keep their love strong until Blaine drifts away from everything sensible, and everything living.