for the longest night

We made it;

some of us on our knees with cracked palms and grazed knuckles. Some of us with suitcases strewn across the land. Some of us nursing tender hearts and throbbing heads and screaming infants (real and imagined).

Leaning into the precipice,

On this longest of nights I keep watch with small lanterns. I patrol the perimetre for ghosts. I eat only what I can swallow. Sing lullabies for hours to the passing clouds and challenge my nightmares to another game of truth or dare.

I burn everything
except for the ashes.
I am scarlet and orange
and white.