together we mourn the most
beautiful night
lest we forget its truthfulness
to us
–forgive its burden unto us
nostalgia takes hold in the
dark
vacillating between deceptive longing
and the sincerest of aches
we can do nothing
but feel.
the stars of tonight will forever
burn themselves into
the back of our throats, buried
but there when called upon. This
is not lost on us as we watch
the break of a new dawn illuminate
an era eterna
a song is muffled under
the weight
of thousands of tons of sand
under the weight
rocks break
and on the limestone, I lay
listening to the night
You cannot see your hands
before you, but they are orange.
stained from the dust
that coats the wild dog’s fur.
you, small and skinny,
misplaced your desert lover:
vulpine and wily
you found your way
halfway across the planet
sink with me in deserted dunes
deep beneath the desert’s moon.
I enter this season damp
saline crystals form
on my cheekbones
I am ready to
glow
Staccato breathing
mechanically makes the air
move in and out
short and frantic
shrinking consciousness like
flesh rotting from a carcass
insufficient surface area left
to save
to graze
disoriented and abstracted reality
stinging and dizzying
inches from dancing
for eternity
The breeze carries sticky caramel sweat
through long summer days with no lunches
I have packed up all of my
old worlds and have brought it for you
tales of youth spoken
through long-dried acrylic color
chemical stories stored for good
on yellowing canvas
move-in day is unearthing
unnerving revisits to past lives in
past homes
we expected her long ago
but she came not until July
she came when she knew we were ready
prepared in the mid-summer heat
to confront pasts—burn old blood
iron wrought purges and starting anew
I have a new home today
ink ribbon smearing ivory cloth
curtains pull open to a new street
I breathe new air
this is welcoming myself home
