the midnight we share

i saw a pair of hummingbirds the other day.

like shooting stars, certainty of their existence is inconsistent

gone in a blink but their essence

ever permeates.

i tossed my heart into the night sky,

27th of July,

the day mom gave life her last kiss goodbye.

perhaps it was a few days before, when dad told me she was giving up the war.

i cloaked the throbbing emptiness in buoyant, velvet blue

and floated from person to person. quick, quiet, cold.

worried they might see

my heart was somewhere far away from me.

as I got cozier with life’s new precarity,

sprouts started popping through the frost

reminding me of the bounty of life and love

i thought was forever lost.

a tropical island, blooming with hibiscus and rose

funky earrings, Jimmy Buffett, and fuzzy kitten toes.

nature walks, bonfires, camping trips-

her essence permeates

through my funk, in my fingertips

so i step out of my hiding cloak

and let my heart return home.

let it radiate the rhythms learned in the night sky

tenderly, to the humans who pass by.

knowing, that rippling, purple midnight we share

has hosted billions of hearts tossed

forever united through loss.