i saw you in a dream

you were there like smoke pouring out of a chimney i wrapped my arms around you and 

        you were gone

foot hanging like a promise over the threshold of home 

a dark wind carries me back into the piercing cold

i awake to the siren of a memory

bitter nostalgia that cuts through my failing anesthetic

         today

my lungs are a wasteland 

bulwark hewn out of yesterdays and

forgotten conversations reduced to nothing but

oxygen in the twilight zone 

of the ocean

cue the riptide of indolence sent by 

acidic reminiscence

your voice echoes in my ear urging me 

away from the seductress that is 

        evocation

i don't remember the exact words your wind whistled in my ear

only that you said 

      breathe

and all i heard was

      burn

tear the years from their roots

and place them gently in the furnace

let them leave peacefully as you did

          but leave just the same

burn the paper empire endearments

that vanished anyway the second 

i forgot the sound of your voice

let the blaze render the requiem

the words to which i never learned

for they live in a casket next to a desolate face 

          whose features cascade through the hourglass

i must burn them myself before they leave of their own will