"Winner of the Open Community Poetry Contest for the period Jan-March 31, 2017."
when the door slid shut behind youI cradled your treaty in my palm
I put it to my ear
I could hear the ocean.
a vast crash of salinated blue
a whispering pelt of damp wind
that empty empty sound
of useless collision.
that soft noise was really nothing more
than the shove of blood beneath my pulse
your promise then as hollow as every other bargain
negotiated in avoidance of each other's skin.
blooded on broken glass and
the detritus of your need
I am left now with the vacant stare of
still rooms and hushed entrances
and photographs furnished with ghosts.
a beer can cloud of gnats
rises like smoke to surround your absence
and i am anchored to the silence with all of that
rough and empty noise.
