A strand of ice blue hair
Pale grey eyes
These are the vestiges of you
We stand on the shoreline
Her tiny fists balled in mine
Her forehead furrowed
Across the water
Above the debris of the bridge
We once met in the middle
Salt water at the edge of her toe
I snatch her up
Suckle her toe until the swelling stops
That too is yours
The toxicity of water
The toxicity of me
**
The single blue vein across her torso
A hunter’s stance
These are the vestiges of you
She leaps along the shoreline
Her feet playing life and death
Water droplets burning her flesh
Beyond the shattered concrete
The red fading, the bridge sinking
Your cities rise, blue jagged into the sky
She runs in lines, children training to fight
She is shoved, pushed
Her loyalties tested, her pale grey eyes fierce
That too is yours
The premonition of death
The premonition of enslavement
—
Haunting dreams, voiceless whispers
A dragon’s sight, a bat’s ears
These are the vestiges of you
She stands knee deep amid the waves
Her body a woven field of tolerance
Fresh scars heal as she steps
The echoes of greed grow day by day
A shielded walkway begins its stretch
Cold blue limbs prepare to surge
She leads the crews day and night
Stone by stone, around our isle,
A moated fortress, she builds
That too is yours
The drive to fight
The drive to conquer
—
Unshakable vision, sharp and fearless
A warrior’s back, a lover’s touch
These are the vestiges of me
For seven years and a night
She has stood along these shorelines
Her battalions have bled to shield these walls
With a swiftness you failed to foresee
She has sent your shielded walkway
Crumbling back into the sea
Pebble by pebble our villages expand
Our isle of ravaged refugees
Scattered, made whole, made a nation
These are mine
The will to survive
The will to thrive.
