Aftermath

Flashes of you
Burst across my mind like
Sparks spat from a fire
You shower, ethereal, spray
My thoughts with fiery shards
Of what you are: I catch
A sudden slant of face
A glance
The habit of your hands
Your restlessness
I see your grin that comes
Easy as summertime
See the little devil lurking
In your glinting eyes. 

You rise in my head like
Steam, moist, nourishing 
A loaf of new-baked bread
But when I wake
From this hectic dreaming
Fey, misplaced, I know
The deed is done
And you are gone.

Yet you linger on
Here, inside
Make me blind with all this
Inward-turning sight to where our
Paths crossed and you
Took mine.

I bask in the aftermath
You left behind, serene
Yet forlorn
Engrossed in the strangeness
Of the net that fortune strung
To catch a star
And pull it down

And I still burn
From the conflagration.

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