our last honeysuckled summer
your sunflower flashlight guiding
a new dark path

cheekbones and ankles
flashing like struck matches
in fragrant anticipation

sibilant splash in a stranger’s pool
surfacing dead to me
fleeing through the door into fall

sparking one candle
after a long dry season
to see if sorrow still floats

Clay Waters has been published in Onionhead,
River Oak Review, Poet Lore, and Literal Latte.
He writes from New Jersey by way of Mississippi.