Grave Opener

With one hand

          on a black garbage bag

                   full of dead rats

I used my other hand

          to brush my fingers

                   through your shadow’s hair.

We exchanged

nightmarish pleasantries

in that hollow

June horror;

I knew I needed

you then

the you

in the dreams –

the you

that left

the small shards of glass

in my lungs –

last night

when we slept together

and awoke

apart in black sand.