Between the Breaths

I met you at the edge of the world,

where the skyline bled to darkness.

Crimson shadows befall your face.

A question hangs between us, unanswered.

I exhale.

A gust of wind, heavy-laden with salt,

tousles my hair.

I am reminded what it felt like —

those many nights stood right here, with you.

The recklessness of our youth,

epitomised in a symphony of laughter.

Wildfire hearts ablaze

with the promise of tomorrow.

How easy it was to love you.

Waves crash,

hum morphing to roar.

I feel the insurmountable rise,

memories drowning as I desperately clutch at them,

only to have them slip through my fingers

like sand,

like water,

like air.

There is a pause in that moment

where yesterday and tomorrow collide,

where truth is our choosing

and nothing is real.

Then the world shudders, vibrating,

and the ground beneath my feet crumbles.

I am falling,

sinking,

thrashing,

trying to answer your plea

but I am space slipping through time,

an echo of a world that will never be again.

I gasp.

The world goes silent.

I surrender to the abyss,

watercolour fading to grey.

In my unbecoming,

I serenade the wind,

a haunting hymn that carries along the shoreline,

to the place where forlorn lovers meet—

a place

at the edge of the world.