Only what fades stays awhile
word sketch
The sun, a yolk bleeding through gauze, is going down behind a thin veil of cloud. The center of my iris blooms red. Have I been staring this entire time? Still, seeing doesn’t guarantee remembrance. Remembering doesn’t make it real. Realness doesn’t last forever. That’s the trick of nature, only what fades stays awhile. The orange, three washes lighter, tints half the sky. Rose bleaches to peach bleaches to nothing, mistakable as sunrise. Five washes lighter now. I rub my eyes. Ash seeps in. It’s the end of today. It’s the start of tomorrow.
December 2025
On a plane some where between Tunis and London