New Sh*t!

My brother and I are working on a new project. 10 weeks. 10 topics. We each write and maybe they'll be a chapbook down the line. For the first week our topic was "The End of the Summer."

Right before your leaves turned orange
I thought about the peach I ate last August.
That lone fruit you handed to me right before
our summer expired-
it tasted like an apology.
Like every note spoken between us
What you gave me then was edible,
disposable like seasons.
It couldn’t stay around longer than my lips would let it
But I let it.

And now summer is molding into another Fall
Reminding me how, in a second, rain can thin
out the humidity in this city.
How the convexity of air between every sapling kiss
can stale my lungs again.
You left in a sand storm
boots up like a hero
Asking me one last time what god meant to me
and I told you she lives in this limbo
This time when the next season seems
like nothing but possible.

The sun is creeping behind the clouds earlier these days
Makes it easier to sink into my bed without your
memory hanging in the daylight
Dusk reminding me of secrets passed
between open mouth breaths
Intentional
Piercing
Cold like this makes it impossible to remember warmth
The memory of your season is out of my grasp again.

Like teeth on a too ripe peach
My brain is sinking into mush
Puddling into something that used to be whole

This is what the end of summer brings each time you leave
We are seasons too brief for memory
And the candid shots of coasts
we used to dream about together

Just two orange Polaroids,
disposable as the wind.