"Promising Lights" by DM Reyes

[dreamlessness]

Fierce for air, I have wished
to escape on sacred wings.
Elsewhere, the night opened
a window so I could fly,
and turn away where hands
slashed the hearts of angels.

Wine-blue gemstone, grain
and blooms of amaranth
in her hand, the stone angel
shatters. Conjuring a parfait
of lights, she falls to the rough
earth, sentient with love.

Your gaze lends pain
to their rain dance --
swifts crossing the grass to
cables dripping wet with water-
drops, to branches drunk
with rain, and every time --
higher and higher,
until I lose them.

After my eyes have endured
rainfall and silence,
a timely rainbow appears
north of the promising lights,
declaring love
even in this absence
of angels.