Disarray

late, summer eventide ... I lay on the rug, head by the window, feet tended in the direction away from your house ... deliberately ... designedly ... full moon drizzling its cornflower bloom thru venetians, dividing into soft, dripping strips of liquid sapphire that slather my skin with somber streaks of twilight - shredded like the ragged raiment of my heart, and what's left of my shirt - my favorite shirt - the one you always wore to bed, for me, for passion ... for us the one I just took off and tore to ribbons, soaked with the unholy issue of wet from my eyes, and strewn across my bare chest ... in this bare room ... ALL - clothes, love, life - in disarray ... the sea is breathing ... regular balmy bursts of brine that push the blinds away from the sill, then relent ... push ... relent, making the shadows part like lips and purse, just as a wee child blowing the thistle off a dandelion, or the way you'd wake me each morn, parting my hair with puffs of tea-scented breath, until my lashes batted open and sopped up the splashes of your smile, my fingers tunneling their way through Egyptian cotton to prize your softest, tickle-friendly spots ... greeting the day with slow, sweet, tender love-making ... those thoughts quickly perish, fizzling like white phosphorous ... I am stone now, as cold and sallow as the moon - bloodless and stark, with no breath but what the ocean gifts me ... my only tie to you now, this moonbeam, a streak of wan light that I shall grasp like a wispy, tenuous rope, and hold on with what will I have remaining - with what semblance of a spirit you've left me with ... a rope of soft glow that is now my only connection to you - from my barren heart to the mocking moon, from the mocking moon to your mocking love ... and you ... this strand of moonlight lustre will tie us, ever, for if not, it will most assuredly find its way 'round my throat, and I can think of no more fitting or beautiful a thread ... from which to dangle. ~ 4th Place ~ in the "Disarray" Poetry Contest, Nina Parmenter, Judge & Sponsor.