The shoreline bites at the toes of attendees,
watching the little appendages curl up together.
The footprints there have been etched into fossils,
the sand crunching together and sounding like
echoes of war cries and whispered endearments.

The raft is loaded. The time is traced.
A caterpillar in a chrysalis hums a love song,
glows with the light of ‘vita vita vita’ as
the gathering crowds taste dead languages.
Children eat from lunch boxes carved with runes.

Sometimes a glipse of twenty years is caught,
a journal is forced open by the wind; it’s pages
creak, the voices from the world's coffins
that have been wrenched open start a hymn
and the songs pile up in our ears as dust.

Those who are do not mourn titter respectfully
as men in white coats try to push the raft
into the water, but you were so lovably stubborn.
You always returned and even here you knew it;
your final laugh was filtered through sign language.

I step forward and push, float you off into
the water, put my fingers over the candle and
over the lips of dead kings as masses shoot the sky.
The match roars and your raft gasps as it burns,
old things being laid to rest and new ones kindling.

On the sofa
             Arm in Arm
                          Cheek to Cheek
                                           She speaks softly

"Darling, I've wondered... How would you describe me to a stranger?"

He pauses a moment
                     Pushing a piece of hair
                                                     Behind her ear

"To a blind person,
I'd tell them you're the most gorgeous face to wake up next to."

She smiles
        He continues

"To a deaf person,
I'd write to them how lovably silly you sound while singing in the shower.

To our new neighbor we have yet to meet (still counts as a stranger),"

She giggles
       He smiles at her

"I'd warn him of your amazing cooking and your famous house warming recipe.

And to the meanest of the mean, a truly horrific person,
I'd tell them they should be more like my darling; the nicest of the nice.
Never speaks poorly of another, is generous with her smiles, helps any one
and any thing when in need, accepts people for who they are, and - Oh, love...."

She lifts her head to him
                                  Slight concern in her lovely face

"What is it, Jake?"

He smiles at her
                     Kissing her forehead

"All these unlucky strangers would think you're not real, or too-good-to-be-true!
But you're definitely real, and I'm the luckiest man to be with you."

Accept the first option displayed by the godless black screenless moniter,
honest laughter contains the graveless monster ageless in our hearts whether programmed to or not,
The glowing door appears in low self-esteemed corridors guarded and ignored from the lawless oasis of subconscious statements, eating the fated to grow families graced under skeleton arches of martyrs disregarded, stand united with hand clasps tightened under flags of saturns dying breath in cycles, designs set in circular sequwence depicting the reforms sought after every disaster after the codex of shattered beliefs was writ to be promoted by the gullible innocents lovably prone to systems set in comforting tones, one day we'll wash away wills of peace weakened citizens willingly stagnant but that's a given object of fascination to be replaced like the shackles of fate yet claim them as absent, happily trading their lackluster talents as hostage informants abhorred with the bargain struck between state and the poor