immortalized... on thin air

Lovers by E. Thor Carlson

in the beginning…

there is a rolling fog


or perhaps

it is a hovering mist


and he will fade

vanish

and be gone

and then…

there are the shadows of night


and he will be

darkly dressed

evading recognition

and as her eyes are distracted


by shooting stars

he will merge with restless shadows


and he will fade

vanish

and be gone

and she will know


the vacuum of emptiness

each moment

more bottomless than the last

while there is nothing to dam

the surge of her sorrow

and this pain probes

like a thin cold wire

so her heart shouts out

a cry of anguish

into the silent space

once inhabited by

his voice


her cry

striking a distant chord


that echoes

to fill the enveloping void

and on our doorstep lie my tears

and to our ceiling cling my sighs

and something fragile enters her soul

and she hears his footsteps

indistinct

in the chill air of dawn

but i feel i am watering tin flowers

and she utters a cry so dejected

it jerks her from her sleep


and i find you warm beside me

your secret fingers

inside my secret lips

and no breath parts us

and they shine and shimmer

while their tongues hammer

mad ecstasies

and ancient lullabies

and outside

the sea descends

from a sidewise sky

and we sink

into the wetness of its tears

that delicately necklace

about a universe morning-gowned

in glimmering amethyst and pearl

and you are thought

and you are quill

and you are ink

and i am your words

immortalized...

on thin air