before your hazy gossamer
        touches an instant
an epoch, reaching—
shudder once
then twice
then proceed
until your eyes grow quiet
and sink into the creases of your skin
charting maps all the while
the kind i will learn to
        memorize
so that i may
find you in my blindness
[cypher you
pocket you
rattle you closely]
when your kaleidoscope bleeds
into a portraited collage
the stories you kept on your face
        all these years

                          and i wept