Long goodbye by L.D'Arcy Blackwell

Part of me came to the sea, the part 

that reaches for you, an azure that peeks 

from behind more cloud than sky.

I turned when I felt the chill of your voice 

on the back of my neck, the rush of salt swept 

from my cheek back to the ocean, your home.

Grit of sand between my toes, scrubby moss on crag:

I know you when I feel you—abrasive, eternal

beyond sense, beyond action, beyond 

a smudge—not of sage but of time,

the smoke of you curls up, away,

and I—frantic to catch, to hold, to keep—

I turn to the sea 

where you’ve already gone

without me.

L. D'Arcy Blackwell is a queer poet who lives in her hometown of St. Louis, MO. Her work has been published in Winnow Literary, 7th-Circle Pyrite, The Writer’s Workout, and others. She finds meaning in connecting people and fostering community, whether through poetry, conversation, or in her work as a fitness professional. She is mother to feisty, thoughtful humans and feistier, less thoughtful cats.