Chairoscuro

a match flares

breaching the dark blur of bones

two sea-black eyes shimmering

inside of the crackling rain

I've forgotten my way back

the way gravediggers

forget the colors of autumn sky

after the death-sweetened rain

falls through the world

you've abandoned the places

& unraveled from the language

darkly fluent & carved into your cheek

the tripwire of a mind neglecting

a body's sin of living

all my life she's been near me

though I can say nothing about her

she makes only the sound of water leaving

a moment is all that

remains of her words

the empty rooms

the broken glass

the dead birds

a charred wing-bone

rolling between her fingers

the ignition of lust

on a wild plum twig

& I

I become the stone lamp

I'm guiding myself back

watching the wildfires

neglect what burns