we danced beneath a faerie ring of stars,
like two glittering jellies in the ocean sky—
between the salt wind and crystal waves,
we tumbled and sang each others’ names.
i collected shells while you counted stones,
and together we built something only ours—
no battering trough or jealous lightning bolt
was fierce enough to breach the walls.
but something in your song fell silent,
swallowed by fear, by guilt, by sadness.
a flicker in your voice—
the first crack in our
castle of glass.