the river called me down I didn't know her name just the voice calling across summer so hot the air stole back everything I drank til it hung on me, a heavy drunk like Josh expecting me to carry him home Sunday morning I collapsed under the weight of the shore
I burned the bridges I stood on collapsed into her arms and wept, or drowned, shrouded in charred skin mourning as molted feathers drifted across the surface of the water, gathering in waterlogged eddies like rice left along the curb as the car pulls away
she was so close as I stood on the rocks just past the riptide, just out of my depth all froth and lace and brokenshell-sharp teeth the song pounds through my chest stone brown as my skin, hot as my blood under my feet as my heart picks out the rhythm of the river and I jump
between the beats
too fast and not far enough I can't tell if the shock is the water or the rock or my lights going out as she pulls me close whispers the lyrics as I hum vibrating with melody coughing, choking, spitting her out but never straying far from her either never listening to good sense when she opens her arms and calls my name