THE DAY I LEFT YOU

bathed in the stars of the night
with your sun-kissed skin
entangled in the sheets of white
and hands splayed across the wooden
floors of oak and birch,
and stone and curled in a fist,
i watched your chest rise and fall,
the curls of sorrel upon your head
sprawled out like the sea
on the continent.

my mother waited at the coast
where the sand touched
the shore, and with her
blackening eyes and starlight
hair she was the opposite of you—
you, who are the sun,
and she who is the moon.
i forget, sometimes, that she is a goddess,
baring only the blood of an
immortal.

i lean beside you as you rest,
inhaling the almond
of your scent,
and kissing the top of your
furrowed brow
which quivers and wrinkles in
the midst of my departure.
feet against the open floor
with only a bag i bare,
my heart beats forever more
to see you once again.

we were only young,
as young as kids can be,
and somewhere near the
blossoming age of
thirteen,
where decisions are made
and friendships are formed,
against the sea
i trudged and stormed
towards my new destination
for a lifetime to be
my head turning back
to look at the sea
and inhale it's scent
to remember home
but all i thought of
was you.

"farewell,
patroclus."
i cried silently
in the crook of my
elbow as i watched the sunlight
of you fade into the moon.

i thought i would never know your face again in life.