Cygnus
Salt, honey, seawater.
Your cup where you left it / porcelain, tannic tide-line of tea / crescent of your lower lip / printed there, oil and skin
You’ll be on the boat by now / the work waiting in Dublin, London, anywhere but here / face to the dark / the Swan moored in the sky / moving water, drawn between us
Yesterday I swam to you through gold hearts of jellyfish / their bells stunned with light, tangling / sáile / mo chroí
Yesterday I ran through the tide to my mother / waiting in 1987 / arms wide open / peroxide Amphitrítē / my sun
the bay, green-black, singing beneath us
we drank from the same cup / warm milk and honey and seawater / salt and honey / salt and you
Cygnus sails above / wings pinned to the dark / as you slip through
Photograph: @rhamely on Unsplash 🖤
I love this. It feels like waves, but also like the act of observing: like the quiet beat of a heart. Somehow, it captures exactly how I've been feeling these past few summer days: lonely, yet found at the same time.