When the night ocean retreated Five Islands waited In the sun On carmine clay That late June day When bare feet churned Tide-turned stones On the strand They marked my path Far from others When an eagle soared To circle, with my silent heart, The reconnected isles Floating higher Til we were both lost From view I knew why The heavens smiled

I dreamt I saw you once more Sunburnt Tears rimming your eyes Saying, “Sorry…” As we turned to watch on film A story I’d seen you in before But could not recall And when I turned to ask Your name You were gone

I was born knowing Everything, save why This knowing, a knife, Sharp and unwieldy, Was held at the will Of higher powers Over the crown Of pithless victim Hanging by their threats Of the yes Spoken to my years of knowing Everything save when The dawning of each déja-vu Would break my vow again To find me falling From grace Once more

Only time could make space For new hope within fate To race light years ahead On paths Both strange and unknowable Past collapse, to extend Crushing past, to portend That the lens of your loss Would make sense of its cost In the skies Far away, and immutable How upturned dream and thought Could imagine a spot Long from then Close to now Where I was focal When I stood in its light With imperfect insight And chose to feel Blessed, and incredible

She goes down as the finest Tequila Her elixir, euphoric regret Both journey and destined amnesia Though the former, I cannot forget Sworn to swallow her beauty tomorrow With an illness that burns like an age Coming up, oft and on True oxymoron Both captive and free I still choose the journey Through this youth that I’ll lose for what’s sage

My mind was a holding My memory, the prisoner I couldn’t free So I made it monster And spoke my mythos Hoping Perseus Would slay this Unspeakable in me Yet, the cherished Held his sword in silence In steed, showing me myself The wingèd Springèd from this insight The aegis of my beheaded history

I was calm and still The night I met death My last inch Separating the stars That connected the constellations of my past In novena Overhead, The croning of the fates Paused Long enough For Atropos’ arts To numb the pain Of sudden insight The threads to my life Clipped from the fight That I conceded But there Where loss last sheared my heart I was bled into death Undefeated

My dreams are goodbyes Unmakings that my soul surveys From futures only it can reach So, I do not chase them These faithless farewells Whose only promise Is grief

Your eyes were an anchor As life ripped me from tide Adrift from my story, My tongue, and my mind, Your voice, deep and slow Like the swell of the sea Afloat with unknowing Strange harbour to me And it felt I’d dissolve If you looked away But you didn’t, I couldn’t, And that’s why I stayed