Death is the color of water
rivers soft and hushed
hard as bone
chambered in the cold caress of silence
the hook of dawn
the wasting night
reddest born
skin of new fire
painting shades
in darkness / wrung

this is the Death I breathe
when fingers crack
from holding the earth together
holding you
holding me
…together

Death is the color of water
a broken ocean
brackish black
the heave of god
so violent as to cut her
blood into the sky
as a conductor might / in symphony
crescendo
then convulse
under the strain of rapture / fly

this is the Death I breathe
when fingers crack
from holding the earth together
holding you
holding me
…together

Death is the color of water
thicker than memory
into consciousness kerf
the rain
the rage
the rhythm
the sea
spilling shadows
where shadows
ought not to be

this is the death I breathe
when fingers crack
from folding the earth together
folding you
folding me
…into violent synchronicity