…rust

Tell me to listen and tell me
I’m spiralling. Notice the
dull lines in my eyes
and the smile that shapeshifted
from something else entirely.

Question all my white lies
and undone truths. Dance for all
the others and especially
all your selves. They all need
to see, to sway, to write it
in the sand where only
water can take it.

Hold me not in your arms
but in your mind, where the
past lives. Be my rust like the
ocean’s, clinging on, even
in the storms, and in the fires
that led us here.