And we fell into oblivion laughing,
Ribcages vibrating with joy,
As the night swallowed us whole,
We spoke about the rhythm of hummingbirds,
All our sounds merging into one,
And I swear we could all fly in that moment
If only we’d tried.
Inside our bones, we worked fireworks into music,
Colours filling our eyes, hands and lungs
Until we became lighthouses for the lonely,
Inviting ships out of the storm
And into a bed of sand and smiling lips.
Painting over the night sky
Until the darkness looked like an explosion of light
Like a synesthetic symphony written in star dust
And we lay there on that beach of grinning sand
Like interstellar Michelangelos until dawn called us home.
And now we day dream about how warm our fingers were
When they moved across one another
And I’m trying to write laughter
While outside the blackbirds are catching worms
And the swallows flirt with the earth like they were angels flirting with a miracle
It would be a miracle if they ever touched the ground again.
So I begin to think of angels like hummingbirds
Small enough to fit 13 on my shoulder
One for every year since my grandfather moved on
He was a sunflower
An explosion of gold given a body made of halos and mud
But I don’t remember him all that well anymore
Yet I see him sometimes in the rays of sunlight
always pushing themselves across the sky
Always breaking through the clouds like a promise
Like a memory
Like hope.
And the flies dance
Rubbing their legs like a hello
Buzzing their goodbyes
But they can’t leave
Not yet
They are transfixed with the beauty of our memories
As we speak them into existence as if our words were holding hands
And we had lived a thousand lifetimes, a double helix dancing through the ages.
In the darkness we call each other giants and dare the street lights to prove us wrong
But they never do
They never do.
The Carpenter's Sparrow 