glimpse of repressed desires, in rain
as i met dominique northstar on a platform
life trains passing by in slow motion
and we are smiling at each other

end of existence's hectic, silver heaven
leaves flying around her head, swooshing
two hours later, her sounds, my *******
and we talk endlessly, films, food, songs

the following weeks are waves in our souls
we don't sleep with each other, but laugh
in times of hunger are we gathering greed
a massage here, a soft embrace there

northstar starts to glow more often
one day, she wears a darkyellow blouse
telling me about it, throwing tender codes
and i catch them, and we get closer

sleeping with you is wordless, dominique
last night i dreamt, you would write to me...

Salt in the air
Grit on my legs
Smoke in my lungs

578 days on and my only memories of you have been swallowed by the lapping tongue of the sea, have I ever seen you somewhere other than the edge of an unforgiving ocean? Did we spend all of our formative years splashing and smiling? Did we only spend so much time on the water because you or I or both of us loved it?

If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can see you elsewhere. At the end of a carpeted hallway, doubled over in a laugh shaking the walls. Drunk in the back of a car, wrestling with a seat belt. Perched on the top of a structure we used as a degenerate hangout, adjusting your camera. But still, the vision of you on a beach or cliff are the ones that sit on top of my portraits and stills in my mind.  

I find myself by the sea on your birthday, the second one you haven’t seen. Do we celebrate without you? Do we celebrate for you? I pick up sand in my fingers and whisper secrets meant for you and let them slip back through the cracks, the gossip filled grains meet the earth and I hope they scatter to you. I can only see your face by the water, I hear your laugh in the waves, and I wonder if you live in every swell and crash. Where do you live for other people?

When it is my time to go, will I be returned to the sea the same as you,
and will you meet me there?

Sea calm,
Crew slept,
Dark side,
Sea kept,
Tide raced,
Waves crept,
Crew woke,
Sails prepped,
Coiled spring,
Waves leapt,
Overboard,
Crew swept,
Left behind,
They wept.

For the sea has no respect
For the nautically inept …

Love is a word
Love is an emotion
Love is a noun
Love is a feeling
Love is an adjective
Love is visible
Love is a verb
Love is a word

Look to the hills-
Ocean waves float by
Veering to the right
Ever so slightly.

Listen! There it is!
Oh, how the waves turn,
Visiting one another
Evacuating below the tide.

Love is a word.

hush,

hear it?
listen.

all those waves
rolling in,
out,

dragging all you hate,
all you fear,
in tides
offshore.

no pen can trace ink
faster than the sea
can wash it
all away,
promise.

your words are water,
dissolving in the saline sounds
of neap and spring,
rise and fall;
lunar rhythms.

eye the sky
and wait for everything,
the whole god ****** world
to take a breath
and quiet down

so you,
with shaking hands,
might find some peace
below the seabreeze scented winds.
just wait for it.

now,
a moment.
a cosmic pause,
and even nature waits
for what should happen next.

recede.
gradual fade
of throbbing veins,
and wet skin tingles

prickles
with delight
of marine air.

you
are safe;

free.

Bending to the moon forevermore the waves collapse against the shore,
The push and pull a rhythmic tantrum abiding by natural cause,
A sparkling realization to the infinite balance vested beyond our reach,
A tale predestined transcending script and linguistic compression,
Oceans galore.