Darkness is swallowed –
I lay my hand lightly, shadows flicker
on his face, eyelashes splayed on his cheeks.
Quietly, confusion rises milky
as an autumn moon.

Plain-spoken without a filter –
Regret, ill-spent time, missed opportunity –
Kindness is a psychic balm
To the stars, to the beauty of forever.
And I, spiraling planets, ducking asteroids, imagine
his eyes, his caressing hands, breathing sighs
of turned earth.

Shared moments held us together.
Hearts that could not be sated,
Wanting more, needing more, never content
with mediocre.
Bursting ice with our momentum, swigging
like a desert wanderer,
A self-imposed prisoner.

Hidden behind doors closed and bolted
Imaginings aerate like worms in soil.
Alone, their bodies morph from sickness to health
With joy, sometimes with sorrow, tightening ties
around each other to embrace the rage,
absorb the flames.
Walking on hot coals for love.

***

Prompt:
“First, find a poem in a book or magazine (ideally one you are not familiar with). Use a piece of paper to cover over everything but the last line. Now write a line of your own that completes the thought of that single line you can see, or otherwise responds to it. Now move your piece of paper up to uncover the second-to-last line of your source poem, and write the second line of your new poem to complete/respond to this second-to-last line. Keep going, uncovering and writing, until you get to the first line of your source poem, which you will complete/respond to as the last line of your new poem.”

I used the poem “Slow Burn” by Tracy K. Smith.

Art by Ivana Besevic