the reservoir

A warm June sun, safe on our shoulders

The reservoir shimmers,

Hazy in the heat

 

we shed our skin

down to our bones,

string them with loose coils of dull nerves-

inactive cables, writhing in limp discomfort

 

Everything is lush greens,

Kind blues

Swaying, blooming, leafy plants and us-

skinless, pulsing on the shore, arms held out

we wait for wind, feel none, embrace and

climb a rotting tree-

the only way to enter the

reservoir, a naked jump, – in glee-

a scream to get better,

the only way out, to gently wade

 

We soaked in clean water, thrashing,

Gliding… we just laughed,

The reservoir holding us

Holding each other

 

you, an eternal limit-tester, pretending to drown

me, a transitory fish, turning around too late to know for sure

until, sweet oxygen, you swarm me

the tilt of Earth,

a separate season,

We return to the reservoir,

to stalky, January branches,

Brittle, frail

sheltered, shaking

toiling in a swelling silence

rushed by hollow air

sweating from the seams of salvaged skin

on this dry, fractured ground

 

Hands in hoodie pockets,

Eyes on the glassy sheet

That we do not recognize

 

socks to ice

we stomp

our rage

to a clearer risk,

a more visible loss.

 

it won’t break.