Do you remember the sky sinking?
That fall, when we climbed up our vague tree
and watched the nights burn
softly on
Those naked arms,
and our pricking skins
You told me that
the dark seemed quite obese
I wondered how it could be
remember the dawns
that lingered before us
and birds with jewels between their beaks
Sun like a bruise clawed its way out
We never did see— never unseeing
ever on watch, yet the clouds
grew above
and we only drew forests with our hands
yours upon mine upon
yours upon—
and down, down plunged it all
First, gold
then the glass
We jumped in weeping puddles
and forced the mud into birthing birds
Then came
the silvers
and with them, those malnourished winds
Do you remember
the smoke that descended down the cliffs?
That winter, we melted
with our pink flames
and slept away those snarling wolves
Beneath forts built of woollen quilts
our limbs tangled, tangled
with our tales
You told me the dark
seemed quite obese
I nodded like
a broken, puppet horse
then—
Dust gushed out the vessels of air
and cars coughed
And down, down
came it all
Dawns befriended our solitary dusks
and moons sped up their dance
I ran my fingers down
the green of your strands
You introduced a ladybug to my skin
down, down tumbled nothing
First the browns
then the blues
We buried our barren feet in sticky sands
and you told me
It hurt
where, I asked
here.
and there were you kissed
And blues fell upon blues
’til cold, shivering, stumbled away
And our tree was a painting
on the lips of a stream
Restless, it lurked out our reach
and the sky
swelled and swelled
till a heavy haze came plummeting hither
And above us was left nothing but—
It hurts, you said
I asked you where
here
here
here—
the blues embraced the lonely of our land
and kissed it all over
all over
Huts, playgrounds, markets—
Wells, trenches, hills and hills
children, the rest
and voiceless shrubs
All devoured.
Do you remember the bleak stars
as they struggled to flutter
in the smothering vacancy
Then the summer smiled
and stole our dying skies, and
all the quiet broke loose
in our bleached towns
We in a moor sprayed with stillness
treaded through
the misty of our eyes
feet upon cinders jagged
where does it hurt, I asked
nowhere
nowhere, nowhere—
and cities were raided with placid clouds