once I thought to offer you the stars

cupped in my hands so they glowed like fireflies

I saw them reflected in the glints of your eyes

I found instead I had handfuls of tears

flowing through my fingers like dirty rain

they were mine and you were gone

I flung them to the sky

streaky rivulets that obscured the lights

only briefly then dried to fall again as salt

and I remembered the waves washing against the beach

the air warmed by the summer sun

the endless blue expanse of sky