Last night

Is this the same world

upon which we stand

Is this the same dusk

which covers our soul

Is this the same ground

which we take off from?

Last night we faked our own deaths

imagined we agonised

after a year-long dance on the shore

taken down by a sniper in Damascus

stopping a suicide bomber in Paris

by enveloping him in darkness

gasping for air on top of Mount Everest

jumping off a honeymoon cruise ship

watching air bubbles caress our face

staring in each other's eyes

hands locked

so no one would swim back up

is this the same world

is this the same soul

is this the same ground

is this the light we have to kiss

the same light which will take us

and tell us tales of wonderment

those for which we crave

and carved upon our walls

is this the same soul

is this the same world

is this the same soul

last night we did nothing special

an old couple missing out on life

unreading the other like

the same old newspaper

last night we did nothing special

an old couple understanding life

gazing at the other like

a shimmering wallpaper

last night we died a thousand times

woke up embracing

smelling of the other

is this the same ground

we take for granted

darting spinning piece of earth

hurtling in spacetime

mad spangling butterfly

in a blooming field of rainbows

is this us, right here, right now

holding hands we love

listening to heartbeats

we know like the back of our hands

last night we kept whirling clouds

into dreams of glory and death

hanging them like crowned wisteria

to embalm our fragrant bodies

is this the same us

is this the same word

is this the same world

no tomorrows to speak of

just the same today

which turns out differently

every time we wake up

for sleep is just a page turned

for sleep is just us swapping bodies

last night one of us died

for the other to mourn

for the other to weep

in a never-seen-before smash-up

from a grade four glioblastoma

saving a drowning child

from the furore of the seas

last night we attended funerals

delivered heart-rending eulogies

chanted our beloved,

bathed their body

cleansed their wounds

nuzzled one last time

in the fold of their soul

last night we sent them on a path

we know we'll have to tread

after a measure of wrath

and sadness

for time is just us swapping bodies

for death is just not an end

this is the same light

this is the same soul

this is the same night

last night we set out to find the other

for life is just breathing the same air

for light is just us clasping hands

the night the velvety canvas for our fingers

the soul the same song we never learnt

the same slow waltz on the same ground

which saw us take off a life ago

and land last night, tiptoeing in

this is the same us

this is us

at last.