the day defeated me
drenched in rain
that drifted in mists
strangled by
leafless branches aching to
bloom suffocated with
a sky as gray as dusty bones.

i give up

just let me have tomorrow.

i step over this puddle,
reflecting a concrete sky,
hood up as rain falls.

last night’s mist
gives way to morning’s
green grass.

the first night we
spent apart i slept
with seventy-nine men adrift
a roaring sea of snoring
lost
without you stealing
my covers–but then i
realize that’s why
your skin radiates
incandescent warmth
when i reach for you
in the middle of the
night. now i know your
thermal secrets

and I’m not afraid to use them
against you.

i am a stone
with the heart
of a bird.