leap day

(2:20pm, wed29feb)

as we humor this soft false spring,

breeze carrying seasonal memories

both real and wrapped in fiction -

open roads through unknown lands,

mountains mistaken for clouds -

we find ourselves again by the sea,

no longer an icy maw of blistering cold

but a gorgeous blank canvas, upon which

is painted all the thousand places

we could've met, or should've, or could've.

while the prophets insist,

no matter what,

we would not have,

ever.

"take only what you need,"

so of course we took it all;

"be careful what you see,"

so it was everything we saw;

"go quiet when you leave,"

so we screamed our way home,

lured by barely-forgotten melodies

played on barely-tuned pianos.

but on the way we fell in love

with all the fairies we were warned of,

and summoned sultry succubi

to clean up all our excess lust -

yet even so, the flood gates burst,

and as the weather remembered its way

the streets were buried 'neath miles

of raw, unleashed emotion.

when the storm broke,

i heard your whispered

wish for immortality

and obliged, as only i can;

for within these lined confines

you will forever smile
in springtime sun,

forever young,

free,

and in love.

simply because i say so.

thunder claps,

the blizzard begins.

(6:45pm)