Tonight, I fell through the ice. It’s easy to break into light.
Splinters of coincidence break into astonishment.
When we walked along Two River Creek, for some reason
you looked up, and said to me, you skated last week
for the first time in your life. You fell, he pulled you back,
as we once did. So, what is there to see,
but the perpetual shadow beneath? Our eyes adjust
to darkness, not the depths coldness hollows out.
I shiver, clouds chatter underneath, under my breath,
the river pleads, “save yourself, Mary, save yourself.”
We know that loss is the hole of love. But, is this
what we mean when we fail to explain silence, the
wet pearls on your half-moon face, the river of the
milky way, skating amid broken stars?

ph – 17/1/17 (Wellesley, Wilmont, Perth, Brant)