The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: The Autobiography of Rain by Lana Hechtman Ayers

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became sand     became ocean     became sky

after “Coda” by Patricia Fargnoli

At the cabin in Pemaquid, Maine
                we were as fluid as mist that socked in
                                the mornings of our retreat days

soft and surreal
                so that our words sighed like the ocean outside
                                lighthouse a quick-step stroll away

our poems glided onto pages mobius as seagulls—
                we colored in white lines with blue glass bowls
                                a tambourine     a teapot     giant beguiling isles

meanwhile the world far away from our mystical
                poets’ globe seethed with the usual meanness—
                                injustice     war     oozing angers

that transform anything
                even furniture into weapons
                                the rocking chair smashed against a wall

all we knew was tall beach grass shifting dunes
                the calls of owls high in the pines at night
                                wind-scattered stars

the last day we went our separate ways
                back to our opposing coasts
                                clipped cities

had I known that it would be the last time
                I’d ever see you—
                                no tears     no parting words

only breath on one another’s cheeks
                our oblique poems of being
                                a hug so tight I’d still be holding you now

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