Without you, the sun darkens
Cold settles in
Home becomes hollow
I feel the weight of my heart
Without you, laughter hurts
as the world keeps turning
My breath noticeable
Folding myself into origami
Shapes
I’ll see you
In full regalia
Arms outstretched or crossed
At my performance here
Without you
We’ll embrace again
My guardian angel
While we’re apart
The best way to stop someone wandering down a path is a post sign
Or a person bearing directions ill-conceived or conceived for ill
And none of this matters in the dark when the stars wipe away like so much glitter
Or you’re standing beside me
Nothing urges the sick traveller toward the forest like a well-worn path.
Still nodding
Boughs wither
Praise fades
Wisdom leaves its tidal rings
Bits of skin and pumice
The measure of me
In my hands
Hollowed to hold the weight of you
Scratches up and down the shirt to beg
A strike snapped from a snake
And all stillness
Then movement
Where the fan whispers into your clothes and sends the secrets tittering out
A flap of your jacket
A slip of hand from giants
And you’re gone
Intentions turn the wipers on
A shimmering of anxiety
Touches my dancing soul
Chaos found me pretty
Willing to upend a life spent shivering in anxiety
But you thick and barnacled, wise and rusted
Found I needed a chain to shake about
Like a tambourine round the old camper
Found me beautiful in any state
Found me light as a feather
As a spark from the lighter
As the first day you lifted me far above your head asking
Tell me all you see and once you fly higher
Shout it down
I’ll make it out as best I can
Until I learn the language of your tongue
i feel thin
like pieces of paper
stapled together
faint writing fainting more
in the hellfires of freedom
reforge your golden crown
else it all else it all fall down
i, America
shake
off the heroes become weapons
resist the hero’s complaint
turn to the song of the common people
a song of death
a song of misery
sung with grace and enmity
stung with peace and tragedy
i, America
raise the colors of my country
front and center
listen
listen
listen
the heroes have all gone
it’s just us now
it’s just us now
speak up now
the names remain unbroken
lifted by fire in the street
lifted by men’s fists
and the chants of thousands
they are living
in the rhythm of the disturbed rest
in the murmur of souls stirring
that have never stirred before
wake up and roar
roar as you’ve never roared before
from his bathtub
he listens to birdsong
beyond closed windows
muffled bursts of sunrise
scrub away the bruises
long to ease his shoulders
shadows flickering as cars break the light
he hums himself a birthday
a conjuring of youth
murmurs her name
scent of blueberries and forget-me-nots
in the bubbles about his knees
smooths back his hair with water
and sits forward dripping
he whistles a response to the
trickle tickle of birdsong
and waits for her name to replay
what death trips off your tongue more easily than your own
for no buckling in breath precedes it
no start of recognition of love no. it hollow hopes not in all pallor stirs not the water meant to be stirred
a field without handhold
a glass without reward of Truth
locked within
a beating bird striking again again
the time
AbyKittiwake 