Sometimes when dawn sits on your chest like an undomesticated beast. when your heart smokes like a snuffed candle. when the anemoi gray down through the valleys, grab one of your limbs each, and tug. when you are your own ghost shivering at the front door. see how they armor themselves for you, their hands carapaces into which you lay your softest self, their mouths conch shells brimming pink from the rich- ness of ocean song, readying to become a shelter for all your darkened tenderness. what sorrows or stresses can wound you now? for if these thunder- storms ache in you, then the people in your life stand up as horizons, so much larger than anything else, always carrying promises of finch feathers and cloudless sunsets as scarlet as lipstick smeared on the champagne glass rim, as scarlet as loves 🕸️🕸️