Nocturne

I strain to lift you near me

From the tides.

I fear you're slipping down

Despite my grip.

You don't see

All the evenings

Wasted wondering

How many of your daily smiles

I have earned,

How many were angelic gifts of grace.

Before you sink to bed,

Do fragments of headlights glide

Across your midnight overhead,

Shifting to a phantom cast of faces,

Swells of cheeks

Or blurs of waiting lips?

Does 4 o'clock entice your mouth

Imagining my taste?

I see nocturnal paradises

Burn away beneath the orange hues

Sent by the brutal sun.

How late were you awake?

Inside the shade and shadows,

In the shimmer on the surface of your ceiling,

Did your drowsy eyes

Chance spy me in your room,

An undulating image on the water,

Or have currents wrapped around your fleshy thigh

And pulled you gently too far down,

Away?

- 3/4/26