message in a bottle

laying here
i think about how
each night 
is a small
death--
i roll the memory &
place it carefully
in one of my father's
green beer bottles--
they wander aimlessly 
on the porch--
clatter on the pavement
when there's a gust of
wind
& this night 
shoreline
comes crashing at
the back
screen door again--
hinge whining open--
i drop what was left of
me lingering 
in this night--
send him off 
in the glass hull of 
his father's bottle--
i float face up--
drink salt water dreams
& god sitting 
at his desk writes draft
after draft of
my life-- sending
them down as paper
airplanes to sink 
in the water--
i say to myself
that in the morning
i will wake up
in someone else's hands--
unfurling me--
reading me like a hymnal--
singing what's left of
me from the night before--
i'll tell you i had
a marvelous dream--
as vast as the water
lapping at the back 
porch--
love me like you
would a hinge--
take my wrists
like door knobs--
i'll tell you 
i had a marvelous
dream only i remember 
none of it--
you were there--
reading me--
my body 
as always
a message pulled
from a green 
beer bottle--
i had gone 
somewhere without
going
& when the ocean
is dry &
our bottles
smashed on the sidewalk--
we will wake up
abruptly
to the sensation
of sinking
in each other
& god with
his quill pen will
laugh &
neglect to write
us an ending
each night
each night 
a small small
death