i glance back for only a moment, but hiding behind some ill-defined existence, i see her.

i see her sinking slowly into an ashen sea. her gaze reaching for mine. her hair reaching for the moon, like vines climbing for the sun. her lips parted and motionless and conceiving a breath which says, “you can always come home to this place of birth. you were born to a mother, and she too was born to a mother, and so on in a long line of mothers going back until the first mother, Lilith, who is of this place.”

i feel the frostbitten vastness in her touch, and i taste the sweetness of nostalgic decay in the water; and i know, some day i will come and i’ll stay