the covenant of salt

you slid once more into my dreams
so real i woke and called your name
it was that hour so close to dawn
the world doesn’t know if it’s coming or going

and i remembered the salt of you
the knife-edged tang assaulting my tongue
the almost bitter afterburn that always left me
wanting more than was good for me

and as i lay in the increasing half-light
i craved that torture once again
and knowing there is only one approximation
i rose and dressed and went to the sea

and in a sky illuminated by the persistent moon
hung scattered stars glinting
crystalline brine jewels
thrown to heaven by the hand of neptune

and bitterly i laughed to think
how even the cosmos craves you
as i made my way to water’s edge
and kneeling took the sacrament once more

RC deWinter’s poetry is anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (New York Times, February 2017), Cowboys & Cocktails (Brick Street Poetry, April 2019), Nature In The Now (Tiny Seed Press, August 2019), in print in 2River, Adelaide Magazine, borrowed solace, Genre Urban Arts, Gravitas, In Parentheses, Kansas City Voices, Meat For Tea, Night Picnic Journal, Nightingale & Sparrow. Pink Panther, Prairie Schooner and Southword among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.