falling, or the dock that finally unhinged
remember that time down by the bay- when we were deserted by everyone we walked down through the trees with? remember how you carried three beers in your jacket and I kept one like a joey in my pocket? we saw stars in the water, that night, remember? we weren't even on any drugs. just lukewarm beers and summer licking at the corners of our mouths. was it plankton, those glowing bits of phospherescence? radioactive algae floating up like bubbles in champagne? I lay down on the dock, do you remember? face to the water and you couldn't tell where air ended and water began. we talked about jumping in. we didn't because it was still too cold and we had no way to dry off afterward and because jumping in might ruin the mystery. do you remember- the sky in the sea! "what is it?" I kept asking. neither of us knew, but I kept asking. not because I thought either of us would figure it out; I asked because I knew we wouldn't. the longer I kept asking questions, kept looking down at those swirling up stars, the farther away the next day would be, the longer we would stay.