January nights, nose numb and fingers burning cold

makeshift campfires

fed with week old

newspapers
taste the vapors

surrounded by familiar body heat
and unarranged calico beach chairs
logs for seats

our domain

we refrain from

reminiscence

synthesizing these memories from

the ashes of
innocence

with every breath,
our existence diminishes

as with the fading of


the last remants of the sun
and so do our restraints
and truth be told






we were never saints

but we never played with guns

skins translucent and embers of secret fires glowing













reveal their orange eyes
long obscured under the coats, backpacks, layers of clothing








smeared with the thick residue of lies

listening to facades dissolving to










the crackling of the inconsistent blaze
when the fire burns out









you'd swear you can hear the hair follicles raise
eyes tearing yet not from the smoke








just gaze
gaze
into
and
through
her
eyes

a flawless enigma
a terrible maze
my demise