Here's To The Nights

Summer days and summer nights
The solemn sweet moments flew right on by.
Faded photographs, still-frames in my mind.
I remember the night I drove home,
The sky sheepishly turning grey.
Time got lost in-between words and feelings
And it was ignorant bliss.
I crawled into bed as my Mom crawled out.
She was none the wiser.
I remember salty air staining my clothes,
The smell of dryer-sheets rustling through the trees
Whenever you moved too close.
I always hoped you would.
Sticky-sweet slushie stained your lips
As we made our roundabout path
From grass to sand to cement.
I’d dip my bare feet into the water and mud,
Relishing the texture.
You’d walk along my side,
Protected from the elements,
Teasing nature.
Sometimes I’d swear under my breath that we were the Sun and the Moon.
But you never heard over the music ringing in you head.
Or maybe the threat of an impending cop car
Kept your mind only halfway tuned in to my voice.
It never mattered.
Wild goose chases were merely foreplay.
Things didn’t really heat up until the stone throne anyway.
I think we talked our demons to death.
Your words and my heart cried out in time.
With thousands of things left to say, I was speechless.
I always wondered how your mouth never went dry.
The moon, watching every rendezvous, was always jealous.
He could never move the waves in the way that’s even close
To how you moved me.
We found God, and Love, and Beauty
Every single night.
The same discoveries anew.
It was simple. It was Truth.

Seconds slipped through the hour-glass.
June flickered out like an unneeded candle;
July died swiftly.
We stayed as late as we could those final moments.
I didn’t want to let go.
I didn’t want to be weak.
I wonder if it was as hard for you all as it was for me.

Now,
The sand has gone untreaded.
The wind blows from the North.
Who sits in our Stonehenge?
Who chases the geese at night?
Who tastes the ocean?
Who hears the sand?
Who talks to the wind?

Every time I wander off into the land of broken bones,
I feel my way through the despair and fall into the fading light.
Sunset kisses.
Whispering waves.
That comfortable silence only two separately joined souls can share.
In my daydreams I find my way home.
I’m learning how to be alone,
But I refuse to learn how to be lonely.
I’ll wait for the night I can feel the salt on my skin again,
But until then,
With my heart open and my eyes closed
I’ll slowly make my way home.