how to vanish like the summer

i. kiss the salt and skin of me one final time

with reckless bloom

and sunlight;

*

ii. decrescendo cricket-song

of midnight’s breath

to bells

and children’s steps toward school—

it is time for you,

my firestorm,

to fade into surrender—

*

iii. make crazy, wild love to me

this last embrace beneath

the lazy drape of August’s moon.

*

iv. abandon all the sweat and sweetness of

our bramble-laden,

restless romance;

*

v. lick my fingers, drenched

with nectar, spilt

from berries, crushed

subjacent to the curl and coil of

our fevered,

frenzied lust,

*

vi. then dip your paintbrush in

my bleeding heart to paint

the forest’s leaves with

red September—

*

vii. bid the green and golden hour of

our love succumb

to scarlet, autumn rust.

*

viii. flaunt the equinox of wane

and wither as

a mistress—

*

ix. make me jealous—

*

x. make me miss you—

*

xi. make me fall to rock

and bottom, (like)

the leaves,

*

xii. then begin the slow decay of all

your warmth into

the ashes—

*

xiii. still the lilt of birds

and buzzing of

the bees.

*

xiv. redecorate the forest.

the cottage where

we sipped the sun must lose

its memory of

your name—

*

xv. so dallop amber trees with

mottled mist of emerald absence;

*

xvi. let the memory of you dwindle as

the pumpkin spice

and black clove-seed stir clouds

of spectral dance,

and V of geese,

and teardrops strewn

across my cheeks like rain.

*

xvii. then ombré your magnetic bronze into

a granite grayness;

*

xviii. each and every day become

a little less of what you are—

*

xix. and when the bell and white-leaf pearl

of ghost pipe bloom—

unfurling tendriled plumes of smoke

and life

from earth’s damp womb—

allow the final breath of you to

spill with ease back toward the stars.

*

-Gina C. 🧚‍♀️✨