She sleeps like a dead weight now beside me, lowered into the night, the ropes of the day swaying around her. We know nothing about each other really. She does not know how often my ex-lover visits me ... [+]
When you were two, we snapped this photo on the island. Back when your hair tickled your shoulders and a widow in a floral cardigan wrinkled her nose, patted your crown, and mis- proclaimed, "such an interesting girl." It's the same carelessness attending other glances, when lights merge to beams and starfish mask as stones, grinding and bumbling surf through the foam. "They can't run or walk," you sighed. "So they just dance."