on a warm august

it was 119 degrees in phoenix when she left
monsoons filled that late august afternoon, in flashes
that seemed to start and finish, doubts that
rise and diminish

ema didn't mean to run
her heart was just too big to sit in a stagnant city
all alone with hearts and minds that couldn't challenge
that sweet ema's dreams

he spent his first forty days in bed
quiet and somber as fall came
and squandered his dreams of marriage in the spring

far away ema wandered seas, mountians, and straits
her heart grew faster in ways and shapes
she hadn't thought her creator had cast her

he started to wake up earlier in the morning
sleep less and tried being alive again
it was late november- calls and pictures
couldn't send her- all the love,
hard times- he felt

she left it all in the desert, he left it in a letter
and posted it for all her senders
and then hung his heart up to dry like clay

who left this all to poor ema brown
who just came to learn and sing
she came with a sticker-
'let love flicker'
and slowly you peeled it away