Three Seconds

Down among reeds,
a long way from home, I remembered
what it felt like to hold
something I've forgotten the name of,
now one of many

Burning somewhere out of sight,
tucked away in the depths of childhood memory,
I saw you smiling there,
mouth agape bearing teeth
your windswept hair couldn't separate itself from
and eyes whose color I forget the name of
but whose companionship can't be the last,

here now are the dark days
of which growth is stunted,
wherein time loses track of its grim march,
and whose only mercy is that brief
touch of her warm, dark skin

a lover to bind all other lovers,
if only for three seconds.

I lose my thought and walk from whence
I came along the white sand, listening
to the sighs of the tide
and your retreating calls for
reconciliation

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