Poem: Summer Garden

behind a crooked smile

                you hide your memories of love

                safely sealed from treacherous hands of strangers

yours is the image of a girl

                who dressed as flowers and never said much

                but she offered a rose prize

in the tree house you broke your hearts

                but you forgave each other

                for the words were seams

yours is the image of fallen angels

                in the dewy grass of the summer morning

                sea salt on your skins

every seed carries life and death

                but you know that without mortality

                we could not appreciate the beauty

you picked strawberries off her bare thighs

                because you knew the colour of loneliness

                and how fast it can spread

touched her, like you would touch a flame

                running through the storm until the cold deafened your senses

                and you ran out of matches

it's strange to think we all look up at the stars

                and ask for our wishes to be granted

                as if they know the balance between making us grateful but not bitter

the drum keeps on beating

                and you keep murmuring

                until the day is done

then the shadow of her, which you carry

                becomes unbearably heavy

                and you trust to the moon, the one little secret

of how you wish to go back and tell her everything you know now

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