by Elizabeth Vignali
Clouded sky, a huckleberry moon
hidden up there somewhere. It’s night
nearly all day. I think about you
and your pocketful of paper matches
gone damp in the rain. The convocation
of flares we left behind. My pocketful
of cigarette butts, my pocketful of ash.
How many hearts broken between us
and pasted back together with the sticky
remains of rum and chewing gum.
Once I thought your voice would save me.
I’m sorry for that. In the dark I walk
the labyrinth lined with pebbles
and seashells and smooth broken
bits of green bottles and remember
July’s light: campfire, a setting sun,
flashlight beams stravaging the trail,
waves shocked into bioluminescence,
each flame struck tender and vincible
and in a flash extinguished.
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