replaced my heartbeat
with the syllables of your name
ghosts aren’t only
what has been
they’re also
what never happened
echo of songs
never sung
never listened to
walking with you
turned fields
into prairies
a tree shakes off
a torrent of rain
dipped its head
in the sky
silver poplars shiver
with the echo of light
wind gathers in the trees
my heart
more cave and cavity now
waiting for the collapse
I like how the last of the light
lingers in the tree outside my window
clings to all its small leaves
clinging to the branches
my sight sand-blasted
I see deserts
stared at by the sun
for too long
oceans of slow glass
a sea of seals
diving into each other’s
molten bodies
silhouettes pirouette
with the shadows
of marionettes
you are the stained light
staining the stone
the church ceiling
crumbled into cabbage whites
shadows shattered
into black butterflies
I think of the shadows we could have created
floorboards laid together
the seams of dark between us
thick with spilled stars
light soaked into
a longed-for letter
never sent
never written
the cry of church bells
across the city
serpents of scent
wrapped round your wrists
where you try to excavate
your encrypted heart
I wanted to touch the scars
upon your clawed at chest