Edge of Time

I promised you

I was always here

a palm on the chest

& the fiercest hunger

a bomb-white memory

& plucked tongue

I've been so quiet

it's almost tomorrow

I haven't touched the year

& I can see days red-shifting in the wind

birds of the field

thrashing everywhere

beneath me

I'll speak until every syllable is spilled

until another war blushes the sky

the soft wind woven in pieces

and we'll pass through each other

ghosts of wildfires refracting through rain

my pleading bones buried beneath

the rubble of the shattered cathedral

another night passes

laughter ashed into the air

our heads cocked

a thief grappling with his own heart

the fume of gardenia stuck in my throat

the church of trees baptized in blood

persisting in waves of blossoms

alighting upon the mirrored water

of the burning riverbanks

the air moves like the hours

& I'm collecting exiled words

like autumn leaves

touching a life back from ruin

on charred wings

confessing

crushing & making them sing