the tide of you

swirls at my feet

salt pillars dissolving

every broken tower

—

the effigy of

my body

ignites

in gratitude

—

I’m burning on the pyre

kindling wish

after hope

after longing

after fantasy

everything immolates

—

cracks

open the fragile

spills the contents

into soft earth

into rooting

into the hot wake

—

of liquid pleasure

—

what remains, serves.

what remains is essential

—

presence,

stripped bare.

this year, I knelt at the altar of

death and divination.

—

I catapulted to stillness

community to solitary

din to silence

deep and dark.

—

again, they say

cover your mouth

count your exhales

watch the wings

—

shift on the wind

flash white and gold

in the sun

enflamed with truth

—

this story of the phoenix

says everything moves

in cycles.

—

when I listen, the echoes

of past ashes

surrender to the breath

of love

and scatter.