That Time

A Poem by _mal

I sleep for an hour or
two wake up sweating
cold and unsure, reaching back for
whatever nightmare your cough in
the next room saved me from
its only early I’ll
stare at the insides of my
eyelids for a little

While replaying a scene
where I walk into the
ocean and dive under a wave that’s
here to swallow the beach
I was so carefully
searching for seashells and
jewellery boxes minutes before
my grandmothers voice locked
in my ear drums, my lips smeared with salt
eyes crusted shut it’s
always that same angry ocean sweeping
up the debris of my feelings or

sometimes I’m on the
edge of some cliff
somewhere out in nowhere, a forest
Blank rock faces
and I’m waiting for the fall