My heart once was open
a drafty emptied room

Sun aslant
on faded walls
venetian blinds
parted and stuck
bent by peering eyes

I look out
over beachfront
abandoned
atop the dune
beyond the reach
of riptide

Swirls of mist
amass and conspire
to engulf me

There at the edge
of a rising sea
out on a ledge
staring down

© Chagall, 2013/2018 revised