the last remnants of the day are now grounded to a memory writhing in you, the sun casting its shadows across a crippled land; a bequeath lost in reams of a tongue not understood outside the womb
a promise slips down fingers learning to pull back lost caresses only to gently push their sunken tales away again, orphaning a shrinking plea
our lifelines touched once, i begged you to wait at the threshold of a kinder light, you left
sometimes, the prayer on my lips spills onto your skin, you dream about a body you can tell apart from a wound, the last of my bottled hopes drip down your chin
my verses have stretched too long to fit a memory I can no longer map, a battlefield burgeoning beneath my withering clasp,
drink. *
GOODBYE, in other words
(i) the winter screams a name to be held. i pretend its ashes haven’t bled whispers. haven't mapped a drowning city. this night will cave in onto the folds of another time.
(ii) a tongue unburnt by the crawl of nomadic feet; home
(iii) cradle gently the rust wearing your body.
(iv) hear me chant my scriptures; the truth in my blood echoing. chest heaving a faith of another tongue. breathing the toll of the last bell the sea will touch to your lips.
listen.
(v) mouth my bones; flicker this light.
(vi) we could break these shadows, you know? sob them apart.
(vii) a thread of dreams drapes itself around a wing wet with the last nip of memory. how can we expect to brush against a thirsty sky and not forget our penance?
(viii) have you ever glued yourself to a kiss? have you ever been orphaned by an escaping breath?
(ix) drowning, our hands clutch the last nape of this night.
(x) murmur it to bones to extinguish. nail it to last words. smoke it into your ghosts. bleed this corpse. this goodbye.
