Water to my knees

Wallpaper drifting

Chairs like tired horses

Leaning in the stream

Red scarf on the statue

Wrapped around your name

Lanterns hanging sideways

Still trying to flame

So we dance

In the drowned-out square

Spinning where the clocktower used to glare

Your hand

Cold as river glass

I keep holding on as the past floats past

Windows like old faces

Watching from below

Pictures bloom and blur

Then quietly let go

Your laugh shivers surface

Ripples through my chest

Even mud remembers

Where our footsteps pressed

So we dance

In the drowned-out square

Spinning where the clocktower used to glare

Your hand

Cold as river glass

I keep holding on as the past floats past

You twirl through traffic cones

Buoys in the dark

Street names

Weeds

And wires

Braided round your heart

“If you leave by morning

You will still be mine”

You mouth it through the water

I answer in my mind

So we dance

In the drowned-out square

Spinning where the clocktower used to glare

Your hand

Cold as river glass

I keep holding on as the past floats past

One more turn

One more slow collapse

You fade with the church bells

Muted in the cracks

I stay in the water

Till the ripples lie flat