Before the sun remembers us,
I sit wrapped in a blanket,
listening to the ocean
roll its secrets ashore.
My breath rises like smoke
offerings, a cigarette glowing in the
dark,
and the world is quiet enough
to hear my own soul shift.
A few stubborn lights buzz on –
streetlamps, gas station glare –
but even they can’t touch this moment.
This belongs to the dark,
to the water,
to the soft beginning of a new year.