i can still feel the wind
screaming seventy miles an hour
past my frozen ears -

only now, it screams silence,
faster than the slip of her beautiful lashes
that lower to scrape her cheeks.

i feel the vibrations of the wheels
spinning quicker and quicker
to meet the next dusk -
the next space of
freedom -

but, the uneasy feeling slithers back in
and i wonder if the rumble of the road
is gone for good -

like her.

in my memory, i remember her
like a sea filled to the brim with tears -
moments of weeping painted over
by two new coats of yellow.

and i grow seasick -
swaying sickly between
differing shafts of sunlight -
i want to
find my memory
of her
substantial -

i wish to grow drunk
off of her, and
her alone.

still, the churn of my stomach
lies in the arms of a lonely world -
and the soil is empty,
the trees are empty,
the eyes – blind.

the circuit still plunges through my veins -
my blood charged, i climb through
branches that slit and scratch
my slick skin -

i am not
indestructible
like her sea.

in my head,
i hear her tongue
like the crisp birth
of each new morning -

each groove of her mouth
heals in the sunlight;
she awakes each morning
with a canary
on her tongue,
on the tip top,
ready to tip-toe
into the air
and sing.

in my stomach,
i feel the wind
whistling woe into
my words. it whirls;
i'll never outrun it.

that sea
crashes down on me –
and the words in the waves
that i weep to forget
hang heavy above these
eyes.

wide
open.

i crawl to the edge of dawn,
praying the light will shine,
holier than Jesus,
to heal me
as it did
her tongue.

but it stains my face -
and when i fall to the earth,
my teeth bound in soil -

the crumbling dirt
holds more colors
than my feeble memory
ever screamed out to see -

and i cry forth,
"Injustice! Injustice!"
but this is an empty world -
and the feedback is all
blind eyes hear.

so
i sigh,

sacrifice sight,

give tears for water ;

this is the age of
need.

like a joke,
her lips still coil in laughter.

the sun
bruises my empty sockets.

she dances.

i
i
i
i ...

i can
still
see her
dance.

i
slip
silently
back.