ontario beach

5/18/2023

on walking the pier, and relationships

let us walk, in the full of the sunlight,
down the boardwalk and down
the long pier; out, out
into the lake, past the men
who fish and the boys
whose skateboard wheels clack
loud on the concrete. let us
watch the waves, the lake
protesting at the boats passing
by. tell me all about the
equations that govern them,
the little curls that form
each whitewater peak.

please tell me about the equations.
I am sorry I didn't understand
what you were trying to tell me
six months ago.

let me take your picture by the
lighthouse, lightless, covered
in graffiti. taupe looks better on you
in june than in december.
I want to remember you like this—
smiling, freckles forming—
if winter comes again.

look at the water with me. look
how the sunlight dazzles. can't you
be happy here? can't you take
your life, at last, out of my hands?