For Erryn

 Pablo Neruda famously wrote about the ocean and love

The ocean and love in two languages

But I could never wrap my mind around Spanish

The way it twisted unfamiliarly around my tongue

The syllables spilling sideways over my lips

The grammar slipping from my mind

The sunshine in the winter

It slips away too quickly for me to chase. 

Touching the street, 

Touching the treetops,

Glinting off the hilltops 

And then gone into the dark.

When I was a child,

My dad told me a story about a little girl's shadow 

And how it grew across the earth until

Night time hugged half the globe like a blanket

I always fell asleep before the story ended