17 Poem by Rilyn Johnson

My Red
Fell apart
Mind began to eat itself
Had she bathed
In the river Lethe
Would she ever awake?
And if so would she know my face?

She did recognize me
We were so lucky
But the rest of her seemed to have vanished
Every thought a struggle
Every utterance utter determination


I fell for the Curls
The promise of new love
My parasitic soul
Found its host
In preparation
To fill the wholly holy hole

The summer?
The last
Desert sun boiled us alive
Who cared?
She was still there
We filled days with lasts
Lasts that would not last
But on that waterfall
And in the pools of the Reef
I think I was genuinely happy
But nights were filled with melancholy


In the mountains
All together
All of us
By our quiet pond
We were immortalized
As a whole
In the lens
Of a once jovial machine
Now cursed to capture
Finality
Dead eyes
And half smiles


As fall came she fell
September, it was 44
44 since the vows
Since forever after

That cursed machine
Brilliant colors
Yellow Green Blue and Red
All of us together
A final hurrah
The thinly masked dread
And the hidden tears
Eternally bound

Her words went first
I almost threw up
Right then

A million apples
Smashed on that tree
The tree that had always been

That terrible bed
The bed with wheels
It was all so temporary
Except her smile 
Like Hestia at the family hearth
That smile gave us heat
Brought us peace
That smile forever branded
To the underside of my eyelids

9/30/2012 
I vomited my whole soul
My wholly holy
My one and only
My Red
Was gone