No Rainbows Out

The sky burns, heavy

in my swollen black eyes,

like two glittering stones,

compressed agony

fixed in a featureless face.

I am captive here

in this dirt,

I have captured no flag,

so I suffer in these dancing flames,

scorched here in this heat,

and you…my only water,

brilliant and shining

under your own spinning sun,

your own cloudless skies -

a careless ocean, you

are slipping away

from my smoldering shores.

I imagined you would save

us - extinguish these fires.

I imagined that your

salt was my savior,

then watched your waves

crest and retreat,

leaving me to wither while

sizzling wind whipped

away my shroud.

I imagined you

would seal these wounds.

Instead, you crashed in,

swallowed me whole

and sunk me, pounding

deep into the dark, past

the drowning kaleidoscope

of all you swept away

before me, then dead calm

I sank, flagless

into your grey abyss.