I heard a rumor

that the moon
had the ocean
steal pebbles
from the shore

to wish
that one day
one of them
rippled her reflection
upon your stifling expanse
into starlings dancing

and that she wrote you poems

about jupiterian storms

comets chasing their own tails

asteroids that sail on solar tides

nebulae breastfeeding stars

and the daughters of io
forever at war
with those damned sons of mars

and that you wrote her back

about warm lullabies
sung by the south wall
on a summer’s eve

women in sundresses
with puffy little sleeves
sat with their legs crossed
on the backs of hand me down bicycles

stories that rainfall tells in braille
upon the street lit passenger window
of an old friends car
shooting you home at midnight

feeling your veins
translate opiates
into bouts of falling and of flight

the smell of butter bubbling
in cast iron pans
spewing smoke until the room is blue

mother’s humming
when leaves fall golden
in black dirt

and the shaking hands of a trepid lover
snaking underneath
your ex boyfriend’s favorite shirt

I heard a rumor

I heard a rumor
that you wounded the moon
and that she liked the way it hurt

I heard a rumor

I heard a rumor
that in the depths of this black blissfulness
you were just as much marooned

I heard a rumor

I heard a rumor
that though no light has ever found you here
that you still shine back at her

I heard a rumor

I heard a rumor
that when you go to sleep at night
you’re no longer present
on this lonely but good earth

I heard a rumor

that you left this merry life
with nothing more for us
to remember you by
than some drawings and some words

I heard a rumor

but gossip
is a language
that overestimates its worth

so if you’re really gone my dear

I suppose I’ll send these poems
to that shining sphere
that burning mirror in the sky

until all of darkness burns
for you my love
with a thousand new goodbyes.

I hope to see you sooner than you’d like.