Jon Nakapalau

for lisa

you wake up

and the exploratory sun
tries to warm your tears

in a river of light
flowing through your bedroom window

this tethering of now
against tide of anguish

drifting questions
with ambivalent depth

rip tiding your soul
as wounded sleep

calling you backstage
holding fast to promise

that his will be the last time you have to feel
this blind pain

because he has left into the night.