glitch

in the fragmented instant
a beauty reveals itself

the source image is destroyed

reinventing itself before our eyes

each tiny shape

a revelation

a painting

the whole

an unlikely gallery of possibilities

his heart

they race blindly along rain-softened red brick alleyways,

the breeze of their passing like silk threads through an ever-expanding eyelet.

turning a right angled corner, she stops.

her arms stretch like soft arrows from the bow of her shoulders.

she extends one leg behind her.

holding the moment, holding the pose, she slowly turns her head as he rounds the corner still running.

his heart races ahead of him - a kaleidoscopic candy-iced orb.

she allows her many-ringed and hennaed hand to descend to her hip.

like a pollen-covered bee, she gently extracts herself from the pose

and then walking towards him

kisses his mouth.

her mouth blooms with a sudden flowering of vanilla, cumin, cherries.

the thin blue-grey edge of a rope of candle smoke circles their heads.

it all returns

the leaves at the bottom of the pool

shift slowly

side to side

unsettled

in the soft pale brown

of their decaying brothers and sisters

all memories

lost

each gently pushed and pulled

by the rain the wind and the sun

as they await their return to their mother and father's bodies