the night is a word for here to there / then to now -

we walk past ourselves to reach what was before us

after the pool, yellowed with people, is bleached

clean, who will watch the sunset mock its stillness -

maybe only our own yellows, pitied by the bleach

maybe what we tried to keep will come to stay

after we leave the pool / a gloaming glow spreads

here & there / now & then / for now, the waters -

a comma of gray hair washes up at my feet, says

the sentence goes on & on - after we leave the pool

we will rise from the stillness & slide down sunset

to meet us enveloped in us / like a soft flame under

our soft bones / a burning, that will tie us in a heat

knot of ash / a different dust staining the same pool

before we swim in it again / a word for each night.

~Ajay
18/11/2020