Later, you will wonder
how you never saw it
coming. When you kiss her

she tastes like salt.  Her eyes
are full of water that you mistake
for sea. You talk of the birds

littering the horizon
and she murmurs they’re
sublime.  When you hear

the distant rumbling you think
it’s thunder of some off-shore
storm.  You drape

her in blankets
when you feel a tremor
shake her bones.  And

then the dormant volcano
decides to erupt, as if to
punish those who thought it

dead.