— Shall Become As —

of shadow eating

us up inside. after
the mountains breathe
their mint-and-sorrow
green against the long
summer sky, they burst

into hot october
laughter, lighting

the horizon with citrus,
rust, and blood. you
put this knife in my

hand. we pull. we
meet as oceans come
together, heaving
against and clinging
across our salt watery

boundary. we approach
endlessly like two rails
of one track, tied
in a parallel that
promises our eyes to

merge, someplace far
off in the distance. you
put this feather in my
palm. my fingers
close around flight.