our peak in love was like a white jumbo jet
huge and bright floating high in the blue sky
clouds beneath like soft pillows, endless,
we saw nothing of the earth, only the vast above,
and we were both pilots, both steering one fragile pretty thing
toward some imagined destination,
and then, fire, sudden, merciless fire
falling, tearing, breaking, burning,
down in flames it came,
ashes on the ground, ashes in our mouths,
and nothing left,
as if we had never flown,
as if we had never been.