Alone on a boat at night
with no wind. A magnetic field
glows inside each object, and each star
above pulls on my body,
and each fish in the sea turns
to ghost-trail, to concaved white.
The sea is a radiograph.
Then I touch the bones of my face.
They feel like water.
I see you standing on a far continent
and between us stretches
impenetrable darkness,
as if I must die to reach you.
I think the world
must be a hollow longing
filled with more of itself—
but no, darkness is a substance
that bends. I will oil and burn
my hands for light
before I stop searching.