Hovering a foot or so above the beach

(inside the twisted air of
              gravel & concrete parking lots
tipping into the sea
                                                We begin again in dreams
                              hoist the steel-clad piñata
              ropes of sand & sheets of silver mist
                                                subliminal gray-green waves
                              rust & splintered bone

Setting out then into the cold streets
                              (I thought I knew the latin phrase for this
the scribble of sanskrit
                                                the chords of a long forgotten tune
              the secret handshake
                              the ritual wraparound logic (as when she
                                                                took the time to explain
                                                what I had meant to say all along

& in that stirring of the ashes
snapping my fingers at voluptuous sunsets believing
every bloodstained syllable