Today's melting over us,
sun dripping across your shoulders
in a sticky trail.

It's early enough
to take the boat out, to drift for miles
like the tide isn't rising steadily.

I fear you might lose yourself
in the warm water, or be buried under
yet another sandcastle.

Not too different from the time
you first mentioned the sea,
and it seemed like we were already there.

Baking

You baked cookies last summer
when seconds stuck to our skin
and I stole dough, yet unrisen
by the handful, off a blue bowl.

Oven like a furnace,
you haven't changed.
Picking eggshells out of the bowl,
pouring out molasses with a smile.

I want to be still there, untying
your apron strings, backing you
into the confines of your kitchen.
Pressing you against that wall.

LOS ALAMOS (Acid Canyon)

We stop when the tyres wear out, hard ground
scuffing our shoes as we step down. Not
a patch of sky in sight, but a layer
of insistent grey; smog stretching over
convenience stores, electrical shops. Beyond.

Looks old, you say, just like dust and factories.
I nod. This town smells like a flare of chemicals,
abandoned fumes entering my lungs, rising
above the hint of a mountain. Enough.
We've got to leave before it rains.

FAST FOOD RESTAURANT
to E.

Huddled in the corner, stationary for some time.
Said she'd been through a lot, and I believed her.
Same jacket, same sadness - wouldn't eat
unless spoken to, finally surrendering
an empty wallet and two dollars for a coke.

Minute droplets sliding down her wrist,
careful fork between fingers.
It was only then that I noticed
she was nothing but hands.

Say, If You Should Go

If you should go - say at midnight,
because the sheets burn your back
and scorch your bare feet; ash-eyes,
breath like rising smoke, pillow
over my head -

-or if you should go - say mid-morning;
camomile on cold floor
when you spill tea for the third time,
soaking your clothes, a fragrant mess
weighing you down -

-whisper in my ear before you leave,
so I may grow aware of your absence
and breathe a little slower;
leave your new address, understanding
this house, like me, may never recover.