Dry

we were fish in a barrel

gape-mouthed with trust

that life would carry on

like this...

or like that...

and suddenly then

wide-eyed

because Independence Day came early

with neither a whimper nor a bang

but a soul freed

while the blood of his body

let onto crosshatched pavement

my feet had tread for years

a school scattered

too many swimming thoughts to weep

too many mechanisms

like waves pushing me

to pick up a shoe, a bag, a shattered sense of scale

that i would never quite

piece back together

to be thrown back

and now the dull crack of it

sends me twitching

dry

gasping for breath.