the sieve and the sand

In the middle of the night

the stranger came again

“Let’s go sailing,” he said;

the moon and the stars, carved out of the sky,

wept in the palm of his hand

the humming bird trapped inside my ribcage coughed fire,

but I could not swim in the dark.

My eyes flashed its last picture

Yesterday’s party

full of chatter, color, chimera, and … me

filling my skin with speed and artificial light

orbiting, hanging on someone else’ s shoulder, arm, waist, eyes, lips as

though afraid to break some heavenly thread;

I fancied myself free.