[url=http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/aftertime/viewer?story=advent&f=1][img]http://1190.bicyclesonthemoon.info/aftertime/advent/advent-01.png[/img][/url] [center]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [b]Photo of a Girl on a Beach by Carmen Giménez Smith[/b]
Once when I was harmless and didn’t know any better,
a mirror to the front of me and an ocean behind,
I lay wedged in the middle of daylight, paper-doll thin, dreaming,
then I vanished. I gave the day a fingerprint, then forgot.
I sat naked on a towel on a hot June Monday.
The sun etched the inside of my eyelids, while a boy dozed at my side.
The smell of all oceans was around us— steamy salt, shell, and sweat,
but I reached for the distant one. A tide rose while I slept,
and soon I was alone. Try being a figure in memory. It’s hollow there.
For truth’s sake, I’ll say she was on a beach and her eyes were closed.
She was bare in the sand, long, and the hour took her bit by bit.[/center]
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