SUNLIT EXODUS

 

Sunlit Exodus

Dawn’s glow knifes through the blinds,

Spills molten gold across the weathered beams,

Slipping down to cradle your dreaming form.

I trace each breath, each stir of your silhouette,

Etching your contours into the marrow of my bones,

As if memory could cage what’s slipping free.

No escape when love’s a steel trap,

Its jagged teeth sunk deep in my reckless heart.

I’m snared in the thorns you spun round your sheets,

Learning too late—my falls are always too slow.

You, like a wisp of smoke, are already fading,

Drifting beyond the reach of my trembling hands.

Morning’s mist clings to the windshield,

A veil of ghosts over the road ahead.

Your trunk groans with life’s fragments:

Faded novels dog-eared with hope,

Clinking glasses etched with old toasts,

Sandals dusted by summer’s fleeting kiss.  

Sunglasses catch the dawn’s fierce glint,

A map creased with dreams of western shores.

You’re bound for the coast where gold burns the sea,

Where waves whisper promises of reinvention.

Each mile you’ll drive widens the chasm between us,

Yet I linger, tethered to this moment’s ache.

I recall the nights we wove our futures,

Under a sky stitched with reckless stars.

Your laughter, a spark in the velvet dark,

Lit paths I thought we’d walk forever.

Now those trails are overgrown, choked with regret,

And I’m left to gather their scattered embers.

The house creaks, heavy with your absence,

Its walls echoing the songs you’d hum.

I pace the floor where your shadow once fell,

Counting the hours that stretch like wounds.

The sun, relentless, treks millions of miles,

To pool where you slept, a fleeting, sacred guest.

What do I keep, what do I cast to the wind?

Your scent lingers in the folds of my coat,

A cruel relic I can’t bear to release.

I’d barter my days to unlove you,

But the heart’s a stubborn beast,

Clawing at ghosts it can’t let go.

You’ll find your haven where cliffs kiss the tide,

Where the air tastes of salt and second chances.

Will you think of me when the sun dips low,

Painting the waves with fire and loss?

Or will I be just a flicker,

A name you murmur to the sea’s vast ear?

Here, the fields stretch barren under gray,

Their silence a mirror to my hollow chest.

I’ll walk these roads until they blur,

Chasing the echo of your departing tires.

Perhaps California’s closer than it seems,

A bridge of light to where you’ve gone.

Yet I stand, rooted in this fading dawn,

Murmuring your name like a prayer to the dust.

The sun’s journey ends in this quiet room,

Its warmth a taunt, a reminder of what’s lost.

I’ll carry you still, a wound that won’t close,

Until the gold coast claims you whole.