a small room in the night by the sea

The thunderhead stomped his war dance in the distance

flashes fighting, jabbing pointed pink elbows in our direction

but our sky serenely held the coin of moon, still mid-toss distance

bright white and spilling pewter flow into a narrow path on breaking waves

like steps of shivering metal fluting off into the horizon

some nervous oceanic night escalator with little slope

looping slowly

mist fell in at either side

with soft voices, laughter, echoing somewhere behind

never quite gathering form.

Instead the haze held in his music

so it wrapped around and hovered over

beating paths to the moon, the thunderhead, me

I could clutch that change, just in reach if I stretched:

thundercloud flaring silently

the only breath music and silver

one of those strange moments you want to shatter almost as much as you want to keep still

as we sat on the foundations of someone's giant tumbled castle

flattened by time and disuse

I dug my hand into the old root of a turret as he

leaned in for just one soft 

instant

dived so deep

I thundered with endless pink-elbowed flashes

all tumbling to break into rain