punctuation

how do i put it into words

i think i loved the way your words trickled out of your mouth

like they knew exactly where they ought to go

and exactly where they ought to stop. 

i think i loved the way these words

formed such simple sentences

and bore such heavy weight.

i think i loved the way they

seemed so bare and yet

came bearing such meaning.

that was the beginning.

now how do i put it into words

i think i didn't like it that much

when you stopped writing your straightforward love letters
that needed no metaphors

and when you stopped believing in the words that you uttered.

my word is my bond. and when i speak, 

you almost always know what i mean. 

when maybes are nos, or yeses

when yeses are masquerading as soft nos.

and for you, i almost always had a yes.

this is how it was between us:

that you drew a period where my question marks began

that sometimes you looked at me like you have something to say

but they end up as parenthetical expressions (inside your head, 

never let out of their cages)

that when i try to pause and put a comma 

so i don't run out of breaths

you cross it out and put a dot instead

to put silence in the space that my voice used to occupy.

and when i started having semi-colons and run-on sentences

you pulled out exclamation points on me.

then i started with run-ons and question marks yet again.

and all you did is put a bigger dot, period, the end you said.

we picked up where we left somewhere along the way, 

and i found that if i could simplify,

you are periods, dots, colons, parentheses.

i am semi-colons, question marks, and exclamation points.

and that when i try to recall, i never knew when your question marks began, 

and exactly when we ended.