Perhaps, afterwards, when all this is over

and everything we have to do is done,

we will gather here again, in this transitory harbour,

with our cards face up on the table, all we’ve lost and won.

And perhaps, on that day, there will be no more need

for all these careful steppings round one another;

no more need to keep the past wrapped safe in jewel boxes,

doors locked, arms folded.

But for today I’ll remember our broken Atlantis,

born and bound in unconquerable fate,

lost to the waves and wrecking ball of time;

and I will pray to the dayspring, to the morning, looking east,

that a dawn may yet rise on us, in one place, together…

for though we’ve all shouldered our packs and been scattered

like sand across the shores of this earth,

I don’t just want keepsakes to remember you by,

nor even everything you’re worth.

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