Dry

For Tomoko Mukaiyama

You left on that dumb dark
rainy day when drops rolled back
inside me landing bite by bite
on my itchy old heart that still clung
to the rhythm of monthly spots recurring
beyond the now but then you crept off leaving
me without the refrains of the orbiting moon
spinning out intoxicating beats drugging me
forward without urge for retrospect and it wasn’t
until I heard the flow of all periods go by tolling
the warnings of a full stop way before an ultimate
shut down telling me this time it’s just my body
parts gone hollow taking a turn off their regular
tides creating neuter time from now on.

(2010)