the shell, rewrite

rewritten and edited, 2022

covenants are made on boardwalks

Our Covenant: a shell, an unidentifiable orange drink on an alright beach

I held it in my pocket while we sang to the radio

waves,

grooves, bumps grazed my fingers

imagining the feeling of your hands I want to hold

the shell sat at the foot of our bed 

an informal immortalization to an unspoken dream

gaps filled with dust mimic

gaps in time and

the shell still sat at the foot of my bed 

as if to say “in case of emergency…”

Break

my heart

touched your soul when we found the biggest shell in new jersey

I broke it

Careless

I keep the pieces in a jar 

I hope your heart is not far