she called my name / like i was a lost puppy / and she held my hand so tight / did i tell you that, over the phone / way too late / honey eyelids and beeswax bones / starting to melt in the midsummer heat / did i tell you that i almost stayed there, hiding in tree branches / cowering under blankets / and worshipping that strangulation heat / and i imagined, in the back of my mind / that i might stay there for the rest of eternity / but i didn’t do that, obviously / i looked out the window / and disintegrated at the slightest breeze / ’cause these days i’m some kind of sand-sculpture girl / dry throat / always dizzy / so if i could just lie down, and stay here forever / would that be the worst deal? honestly? / but if i were to lie down on the gravel beach / surrounded by mansions we will never afford / would she laugh / and sit down beside me / would she point at the lights in the sky / and we’d wonder / if the ufos had landed / or the moon was tumbling from the sky / if we’d ever truly escape / with tears on our eyes / and maybe this time / the buzzing cicadas would stay forever if we willed it so / maybe we could sculpt the cliffs to our liking / and entrench our hopes into the polluted sea / you know?

So, this is partially fictional and partially real. I went to this really cool beach with a friend, like, a few weeks ago, but a lot of this is sort of fabricated, using that setting and, like, for lack of a less meme-ified word, the vibes of the place to tell a fictional story. I’ve been trying to give myself permission to write more fictional poems of late, and it’s been really fun.