hope beyond hope beyond
reason beyond us
into the beyond skies blue we’ve always dreamed

existed floating someplace else
above the hellhole of our broken lives
linked together by distance which never fades

or shortens like shadows do in the late
afternoons of winter sunshine
cold and far and white

pure but harsh and cloudy without clouds
reeking depression and limited options
such as waiting out the weather and

hoping the earth warms up and
hoping the string shrinks and
we each find the arms or flesh of the other

to sink into deep holes in the earth
the graves in which we’ll love
when the earth fades beyond ashes

and dust and storm clouds
like thunder counting the seconds
beneath the light clashes

like drawn blades in the dark sky
and we wait for something
anything to hold on to

and to believe in
beneath that hole in the sky we call
our own