We were etched deep into settled sand,
waiting as slow marine snow rained upon us,
you and I stared up at the endless abyss with empty eyes,
for who knew how long.

In autumn, a luminescent shadow descended upon us,
giant, overhead,
we eyed the beast, it’s magnificent beauty,
and suddenly, our two halves were met across the perfect body:
the night of the whale fall.

Used to gnawing hunger; we shared,
******* from the same dead monster with empty stomachs,
I glimpsed you laughing, with shining blubber on your lips,
and there my heart was pierced silently with barnacle and shattered shell,
in the mystic forever darkness.

I implanted my hope and my roots into new rocks,
to view what I might see of our deepening story
-and in long nights I imagined you, swimming in light,
whilst I knew that in our deep black world
there could be no such thing.

I had hoped that you might stay to see our whale decay,
although you never did say
anything about her dainty dead husk.

I scoured her sleek bare bones
where you picked at her edges with lazy teeth,
I found her secrets, and you grazed her surfaces:
silently eying brighter places.

I yearned for us to intertwine with her empty rib cage,
swaying in sync to the winds of the ocean,
yet the same breezes I danced to
only ever seemed to drift you down foreign current.

My love: we were tethered, but your wandering spirit
saw the faint moonlight of the shallows
and chased it,
unaware we were destined to stay
in this high pressure.

Once again, lying under slow falling marine snow,
I now wish we did not share
the same end;
as the mother whale
on the night of her whale fall.

I look at her in the mirror
she becomes me
her silent mess
undoing

i remember you pointing to me in the rain
my clothes slowly thinning see through
i was in awe
eyeing your form
outlined in the glittery crystals of water
i kept myself
oblivious to my roots in the opposite side of the long story
I was the silent thunderstorm
You were the invisible fire

We were destined to simmer out:
white smoke in the black night
you were undeniably; beautiful
lit up in orange afterglow

eating apples from each others lips
so gently and giggling

We were young silent silhouettes
un illuminated,
painted against the darkening blue sky
falling apart like the orange maples
we were the slow burn of autumn into winter

i have been seeing things out of the corner of my eye.

something in the air. something on the wall. something moving           along the floor.

You bleed the writing out of me and it starts to
glimmer like sparkling rubies
or dry like wilted roses

You were a butterfly in my winter
bright and beautiful