Nautically Nude,

“And all I loved, I loved alone.”

‘there’s too much risk in loving,” the young boy said.

the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.

“We can’t start something new if your old lovers still swim in the crevices of your heart and create whirlwinds in your mind. We can’t reach for love if your fingers are still gripping on to the edges of theirs and your palms are still seared by the burning of their last goodbye.”

“This morning, I recalled an old love, fondly, as one should, / Without the what-if. Recall is perhaps the wrong word. / Slightly ouf of focus, between the gaps and lacunae that riddle memory, / I saw her face, or rather a look she’d give me sometimes / That meant to me then bewildered affection, / As if already she could imagine her life beyond me.”