Words

crack open shells. crush the mantle. snap the jaws. scratch out what's in. this was a mussel.
keep feathers in your eyes and dead flowers. in your pockets. this was a nest.
this was the nature of things.
'it's been a while'... 'yes, a long time'.
but you were in the cargo holders of that airplane headed to the savannah. and i was. in a room. surrounded by bricks. and cement. and a million strangers.
they wrote. letters on walls. letters in suitcases.
wallpaper and brush fires lost them both.

so. well. in twenty five years. maybe.

meanwhile you freeze your image in photographs. taken. to remember. and to forget.