My heart once was open
a drafty emptied room

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

I’d 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