malgré (upon discovering a gift)

Sleep fell heavy. I fell out of bed.
Spilling saline. Waking was estuary,
mingling memories, brine dreams.

Sprawling on the couch, crouching
in pain. Then my mother, who knew years
ago the same magnified pain
exclaimed.

Like a robber you stole
onto my porch leaving
a box wrapped, a friendship
trapped within. I saw your
tailights slink off. Ebbing.

Post-its, CDs, audiovisual stuff.
Chocolate chips. Seawater.

High school, which makes out of us
broken billard balls on constant rebound;
we always docked beside one another
nibbling galley jetsam.

(Maybe I’m too close to the shaker
to think clearly about it. Gushing.
The cueball much too near the pocket.)

Malgré.
Impossible de dupliquer tout
ce que nous avons vécu
et vécu ensemble. Les seuls

mots qui surgissent,
à intention inondation,
des cavernes de mon cœur des marées:
Je t’aime, fleur de sel.