she kicks, legs out on imagined grass
grown over cotton water.
we wash up on the duvet, pursed and pillowy
as clouds hovering over the sharp grey
of rains dreamt
by Northern California fires.

we can’t help but be hungry,
the sweat of a cool night breeze blowing
off my brow, seaside and high like an incoming
tide, puffing sweet white
cumulonimbus into the chasm that heat
has pushed between us.

she closes her eyes, relaxes
the lights of little vectors running
head to foot, and I’m reminded
that I can’t write poetry anymore
but everything is a poet, so I craft the outline
of a passage, a snapshot that asks me
to keep all of this alive
in a mind bound for drowning
somewhere off the coast of Tojinbo.

This is the first poem I wrote for Ashley as part of our Photography/Poetry Project. It’s really just a simple reflection on a recent evening, but infused with the energy of the realization that I’m going to be leaving for Japan in 28 days. I’m really glad that my place is now our place, and that Ashley will be here with Mitzi while I’m gone, but it’s still frustrating knowing that I’ll have to leave them both. The lazy mornings and evenings in bed we’ve grown accustomed to are going to be incredibly difficult to go without.

Once Ashley composes her accompanying shot, I’ll update this post with a link to it, and will recap on the next related post I make.