Latter Day Letter

  This is a letter sent

  to explain everything,

  to divulge the changing

  secret of sea to air

  to mist to rain to sea.

  I

  Love letters

  are folded paper cranes

  which, despite exquisite

  design, fail

  to launch their own flight.

  Such letters should be

  written as flesh,

  Braille to be studied by

  cold hands in solitude,

  ice fingers moving

  slowly across

  a topographical map

  of bellies, lips, and

  thighs.

  II

  This heart was once

  a secret-sealed box

  that held a belled ball

  turned over and over

  by curious hands.

  III

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  My mind is a dime-store

  snow shaker

  in a land without true cold.

  Since snow is unseen,

  my head is thought to be

  scattering ashes.

  It has been said that it

  holds intact remains

  of the lost

  people of Pompeii.

  IV

  The passing of time

  is a diesel locomotive

  that leaves black in its wake,

  with smoke that bleeds into

  paper blank sky.

  Its clouds float lonesome

  high above the timberline.

  Air is water

  without lust.

  It erases every

  letter it writes.

  - Kat Isacson

  Thanks so much for reading!