i walked through a hurricane
to bring you carefully wrapped peace
roses, wilted, so you would know they were mine.

mud caked onto my shoes and made me infinitely taller;
by the time i reached you i was a giant among men and yet
my footing was shaky, unsteady
and part of me climbed down down down into the deep dark
to rest with you a while.

as they closed off the sky i found
infinite corridors that each went on forever
with tired feet and heart of stone i sat
immobile
staring off into eternity,
mine or yours or no one's at all
perhaps just a corner where our worlds overlap.

to see starlight again, i would give most anything,
for the slightest chance for one last wish
(i would wish you up up up and back
where cicadas sing and each singular
firefly is a flash that sends you home)

here it is cold, metal, must and fear
panic decayed into molecules
of earth, splintered wood, and fingers
ever reaching,
snagged on roots and tangled in rapunzel hair,
reaching, ever reaching
into the blackness where we knew the sky to be.