she’s there
a bare silhouette of dawn
on the shaggy carpet
of my downtown
loft apartment
amongst other
things untouched by morning light

eyes sunken
deep into the hollows
casting new shadows
underneath lashes
stuck together
by the oceans
that had washed over
her and last night

darkness had flattened
her hair
had chapped her heart
her lips

she kisses me
just as deeply
as when she used to
exhale summer wine
or giggle fairy-like
tinker Belle
into my hair and neck and shoulder
got lost in the hurricane
of flower dust
with eyes wide and tenderly alive

now she still sings
but the tunes are new
she composed them in moonlight
she says
she feels more drawn to stars
since she met me
life haunts her
now that she found me
so the shadows of light lost
is where she searches

the tragic nymphe
that fell from her sunshine throne
and down to mine
cast from smoke and dust

she was cursed
with features
that shine rather than rot
in the face of tragedy
beauty in the bleak suffering
grey lights provide at rainy dawns
and still she radiates
explodes
with intensity does she portray
the mirror
of her surrounded misery
in the numbed out – faded
by being no more than herself
and my own

KH