in the two years
we shared on this earth
I touched the
surfaces you once touched, and they were
scorched by your presence like the
implosion of a red giant
the rain trees
the defunct solar panels
the roads crawling
out of ditches
they only
reminded me of you
I mourn every
surface licked by the flames
of your anger
left to gather dust or ash
or infamy
in my sixteen years
of solitude
I only further drowned
in the sea of islands you left me, Epeli.
I’ve traded my family name for
a citation,
bookmarked in
the written history
of an oral culture
I haven’t seen the sun in aeons
ever since the heat death of my idols
now I am the shade of
brown sugar and
sweetened condensed milk
both the crust
and the crumb
in the two years we shared
we faded in/out of one another
perhaps I was the
Lovecraftian
nightmare of yours, Epeli.
You, a slumbering monolith
dreaming me
into existence
and I, the lingering spirit of death
kissing the earth you walked upon
grass withering like shameplants
in the years we shared the coasts
and seawaters
I wish I could have met you,
had you
place me upon your knee
and trace my fingers across the surfaces you touched
and every place would be clean
and warm
and I wouldn’t feel so lost
without you, Epeli
Featured photo by Peter Gill via Wikimedia Commons.
