Everything

by Melanie Cunningham

Salt spray glistens and smudges the horizon

Eye muscles stretch toward imagined rescuers who don’t appear

and don’t appear.

The unreality of our reality continues to shimmer just beyond our grasp

As we wait

And wait.

Expectation continues, unfounded

Our necks twist toward that far line between solid and air and back to our empty-important tasks as a gate swings back and forth in an inconsistent breeze

Pulled toward and away

As if promising possibility and then ending our hopes.

That there are two of us

Is all that staves of desperation

And we cling to the warmth of company without admitting

It is everything.

Exercise - What images or visions does this poem conjure for you? Write a poem of your own that speaks to these images.