Precipice

he slips, falls

pale arms desperate to clutch thin air

lands face down

split lip, bloodied against sharp rock

C1, C2

cracked, severed

his footing lost quick

as his temper

//

I sit motionless at the precipice

warmed by breaking sun, stunned

these peculiar narrow thumbs

and nubby nail beds buried

inside clinched fists

//

sea pours rude as

slow rolling smog atop

his freshly battered body

perfumes his nostrils with salty, inky mist

fails to bring about consciousness

her cold wetness rushes in, cruel

blanket

breaking sharp as icicles

against his testicles

she throttles and retreats

off-white spray aspirating castoff

bubbling like congealing soft-boiled milk

she slips and sloshes over

his slumped shoulders

blinds his blank eyes

numbs with indifference

rocks the dead weight

of settling limbs

eccentric grieving

//

he is nearly

drowned

//

I watch his time wash out to sea

as the brooding sun dislodges

from its mooring

its tormented vermillion loosing vigor,

singed,

fire fizzing

into the horizon

into nothing

//

twilight blurs

as I rub tired eyes

trace echoes of threadbare clouds racing elsewhere

slinking across sublime sky

//

gingerly I scramble

up and over

slippery sea cliffs

//

shivering,

I cross the lamp-lit roadside

stroking cold metal keys

bittersweet inheritance

//

driver’s door feels foreign

against exposed skin

its handle unused to my

impossible tenderness

//

I retrieve his cell phone—battery

nearly drained—and dial

three digits

state my name,

his

//

the last of him

at last

submerged

beneath her murky,

drenching weight

and a thousand shimmering stars

***

Copyright © 10/10/2010 by Christy Munson. All rights reserved.