decapitate winter

the summer in her breath

settles the city inside

shade providing momentary coolness

where i bungle my words

against a wall of teeth

like like like i like you

but she’s gone

addressing the harvest that will come

from someone else

not like me

*

poetry is

me sitting here stuck

wishing i was standing

settling on letting you soar

with what

poetry is

*

she came like wind above water

hiding the direction of current

not realizing that now in its gust

there was only the known dark underneath the river

and the movement to an ocean

where assaults will aggregate again

with a wave to the stillness of before

and to the one after she left

that shared the same quiet

but was different

was empty

wasn’t what was