amaryllis

It's summer now, 
& if we were in school
All the girls would be wearing 
skimpy tank tops and too-short shorts
scraps I could never imagine pulling off
& the boys would have an excuse

He floated away
One golden dusk
Watching the sunset
Mute the colors
Dreading the night
Afraid of the monsters that emerge
When smoky grays and purples
swallow his world
Choosing to blaze right alongside

Gold is slipping down the horizon
As I sit, alone, in this metal chair
Gulping down dusk's nectar breath
Admiring Mother Earth from my yard

A sprinkler puddle shimmers, catching my eye
Soft breezes dance past, ticking my neck

I feel alive when you look at me
every hair standing on end
breath trapped inside my body
Waiting for what you say next

I am chocolate melting in the face of the sun
the smallest particles of my body freed

I feel like a shellfish
Complaining about
my smooth, safe shell
how I swoop with the currents
after a turtle knocks me over
trying to remove the suffocating
clear, dead jellyfish
clutching its throat
while there is bedlam