2 Selections by Gale Stiek

left behind.

dedicated to the mavwriters <3

 

in the gray

wintertime,

in a town no

one cares to

name,

 

a sliver of

crimson tears

through the

skin of the

pavement.

 

a scarf, woven

carefully by

someone no

one cares to

discover.

 

fabric flows in

wind, pebbles

embed into

dulling red

threads.

 

people pass

by, and they

wonder. no

one cares to

speak.

 

the owner will

never return,

they’re riding

the wind to

elsewhere.

 

nature has

reclaimed a

memory no

one cares to

recall.

 

fall through the earth with me.

the sky is as vast as your open hands, and

your eyes are just as blue. tonight, we

are two comets, on a journey to see all

that we cannot see here above. so, we fall

to an unfamiliar place, distant, far down.

now together, tethered, we head for below.

 

we plummet from cloud to ground below.

sink into pine needles, branches, and

rain-soaked bark. my gaze goes down

to you, a vibrant shooting star, and we

are absorbing to earth as we fall

as if we never even existed at all.

 

i dip beneath a bed of trees, and all

i can feel is green blades of grass below

my fingertips, surrounding me. fading fall

leaves, red, reaching out to me, and

your limbs, like felled elder trees. we

lock our eyes to avoid looking down.

 

through dirt, we plunge further down

to small towns of worms, insects, all

squirming in the earth, lively things. We

see skeletons, arms outstretched, below

where light would never dare shine, and

they remind me of us as we fall

 

to caves, deep as wounds. little rocks fall

in tempo with me and you, down

to the souls of caverns concealed and

echoes long forgotten. here are all

made one in nothingness. the below

is an unliving thing, and so are we.

 

night, or something like it, is all we,

two candles, can see as we still fall.

darkness, endless. nothing lies below,

nor above. absent up, resting down.

i reach out for any connection at all,

and there you are. two flames and

 

no kindling, we are dimming embers. down

we fall, not alone to face the end of it all.

below, for a moment, we’re fire entwined and