Collide

Your memory sinks to the bottom of my mind,

Like the weights my grandfather clamped hungrily around the fishing line

He had unspooled into chaotic little mounds at his feet.

Lost in thought, you appear before me,

Flickering between your world and mine,

A ruminating mirage

Of what was, what is, and what is not yet.

Licking my teeth clean,

I charge after you, 

Armor whistling and boots

Crashing into the ground like

The waves at the cliffs of Dover circa 1996.

But as I reach my gauntleted hand out 

To brush a stray hair behind the bud of your ears,

You vanish.

And I am left holding the wheel of the car

that cradled your body one last time

after you left this place,

but before you came home to me.

I sigh once, leaning on myself as a pillar

And focus on reattaching the wheel

To navigate the road.

But it’s dark now.

You took the moon with you,

And all that’s left

Is the bitter taste of petrol 

And the smoke belched by the carcass

Of the car and boy you left behind.