At 7:07 am she is fiery but not warm
The stillness of loss bright across our faces
Hibiscus red and golf course green faded and frosty
I wait on her like a bride on the dock
Who doesn’t yet know her sailor has gone to sea for the last time
My skin a map worn soft at the folds
From such old indifferent fire
Burning itself away to sustain us
Both feeding us and bleaching our bones
My freckles pop like sun-storms running out of sky
A magnolia petal has been abducted in plain sight
He’s barely gone and I’m out here trying to get a tan
Turning old scars vermilion and hoping for new skin
“The sun is yellow pieces of luck” like my daughter said
Always slipping from your pocket
The only rainbow here is seen through teary eyes
Water refracting across our cheeks
A crow’s feather and a Florida cumulus
Both contain all the colors of the spectrum
The water is still too cold
But I let the rope go slack
I lower myself in
I can’t wait for the sun to feel warm again
