Out of Mind

Oblivion:

I poured a whiskey and soda

watching the tree outside dissolve:

light going backward   pushed to corners

to the white sliver of wood

around the door.

Where was that river seething with light?

I recall the banks menaced by wasps

swollen on summer sap, a cement hollow

stuck with their strange cradles

a woozy stench of damp clay

the blunt poison of water snakes.

I do remember someone

close warm flesh pushed to the sand

the ocean a dark noise

echoing gulls and a wail of forlorn love

moonlight like yellowed keys

on his antique piano

music across the water    our song

tides pulled awful and endless

as the spine of memory.

The light is lost

my glass is hollow:

the door is luminous

like a firefly at midnight.

Rachel Sherwood.