before you leave
Prem Sylvester
my thoughts of you turn to birds
of light, aflight above sunlit golden water,
cascading over memory’s cliff. forgetting
is a mere matter of diving beneath the falls,
never coming up for breath. drowned albatrosses
wash up ashore, bearers in tow, shrunken.
resting on riverwashed rock, we could peer
beyond the horizon. the dusk of our time colours
these cascading ends marine, sight skipping
over remembrance, till the gulls disappear beneath the crest.
flight will take you away, i know. all i ask is one final
pirouette. we tip our beaks skyward, drinking in being.
