Kairosclerosis ✔ [poetry]

palimpsest

03

PALIMPSEST

⸻

in the singular drawing of you i kept

burrowed deep at the bottom of my drawer,

i didn't nail down your expression,

nor capture the mild glint of your new glasses.

under my hands,

conceive in my perception,

you're a faceless figure

faded, softened,

smudged at the edge,

represented only by broad strokes,

ghost lines,

maddening spirals,

crisscrossing, curving, shading,

grasping into one another.

imprinting on the rough parchment:

a delicate image,

a brittle movement,

a hasty moment,

a shapeless tangled mesh

of you crossing the bridge, walking my bike,

of slick, black hair tousled in the wind

of white uniforms billowing

of dead, brown leaves crunched under your steps.

i'd like to think

my last summer with you was preserved, whole

in my memory,

for there are vivid bits and pieces,

words and phrases,

colours and hues.

forever blacklighted into the back of my brain.

strange, how frivolous details, such as

the city's newly built bridge,

or last hour of heat steaming from our backs,

or our skin, doused in motorcycle fumes,

or the ghastly sun, glowing from the corner of our eyes,

or pecan leaves sprouting above our heads

like ominous predators' fangs, awaiting,

are all seemingly extraordinary

and striking, than when i first encoded them.

yet, like smeared graphite hatching and

inky thumbprints on the drawing page,

my last summer with you,

my memory of you,

reduced to

a quivering sliver of life, blurred on film,

a slow-motioned blink of an eye,

a belated turn of the head.

a sketch, unfinished.