my favourite bit
when you appeared
around the bend
at the end of my street
come to meet me
the ghost of gold
on an autumn night
stitched together
with neon thread
your black dress
splashed by the sirens
from the cries of the city
your red heels
sparked the sealskin
of the pavement
drains choked with fire
sparrows dream songs
within the walls
sunlight and midnight
lines the inside
of our chests
the horizon howled
snow swept the streets
glass the gatekeeper
asks the sky
if they’re on the list
bright
as a blackbirds beak
light stuck
between your teeth
eyelashes
on fire
watched the wind
read the fields
each blade of grass
a word
I miss the tenderness
of being near you
your body soaked
in star and sea light
the sighs
from stroked shores
miss the sea glass
crumbling sunlight
in your eyes
knowing fire
through the smoke
of your songs
the tantrums
of your tenderness
how your steps
slowed
to match mine
daylight crashes
against the skylight
woodsmoke laces the air
with the cream
of its song
the ghost of fireflies
froth from the fractured minds
of the thistles
the burning breeze
flakes the fields
a gate
spills the garden
into the street
close the gate gentle
make it chime
close it like a delicate thing
as if just leaving
looking in
upon a sleeping child
isn’t that how hearts
should be handled
footsteps made faint
by grass
no knock required
no doorbell
rattling the rooms
just the soft cry
of a rusted hinge
I think of the shadows we could have created
floorboards laid together
the seams of dark between us
thick with spilled stars