White Over the Lagoon

You will be soon

taking flight over the calm sea:

a bright dot shimmering far,

filling my sky.

I will still check on you as I do now—

shivering at the 'last seen' on my screen,

postponing the pain of the known,

avoiding the chasm of the imminent void.

The white of the hospice walls,

the white of the bedsheets.

If all that white were a page to write on,

were not there to highlight

the feeble breaths of our lives.

If all that white were a colony

of gulls,

vocalising in a flash of wings,

wandering the Venetian lagoon

as you were planning to.

I will take you there, I will,

snuggled up against my heart,

sheltered in my black coat.

I will release you—

warm radiant wave, ready

to be carried away by the salty wind.