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

the broken thermostat the latest shooting

the radishes found forgotten in the bin

the shattered bowl the burning oceans

the mass graves discovered in a construction dig

so much too much this world this world

when all I want

is to see your face once again to rest in your smile