a crooked smile:

In and out,

in and out.

The waves lap at my legs.

I match my breath to them.

In and out,

in and out.

Harmonized,

I open.

It couldn’t make you love me.

I’m tired,

so tired.

Lying my head on a pillow,

still shaped in you.

A puppet on strings,

a marionette, a mask.

The moon hung like ripe fruit.

Close enough to hear her voice,

Though she spoke in hushed tones.

It was always the sweetest.

Did you wonder how she got her crooked smile?

She looked at the earth,

and loved her dearly.

Down by the riverbed the lockbox remains

Weathered well but still it keeps secrets.

The key still laid behind that crooked smile.

A whispered promise still carried on the air.

That one day they’d pull each other close.

The dance of waves,

a reminder of things they knew so well.