✦ Esther

a poem on longing and farewell

The hopeless longing of the day I meet her;
in a chaos of push and pull, I witness Esther’s divine grace.
Jaw draped in a lightness of cashmere,
flowing where the wind blows.
I trace the outline of her lips and pin it down in my journal.

Those aquamarine eyes; vast as the ocean’s depth;
for you are the water, and I the Sahara.
A cemetery of forgotten things; an insatiable appetite for you.
She moans discreetly, and the moan was the only sound between us;
so intimate, yet personal.

She asks if I know how to swim,
and I nod gently.
She doesn’t know I’ve already drowned a thousand times
in the soft architecture of her radiance

I catch a glimpse of Esther
as she loosens the bindings of her royal-blue dress;
fabric falling down from her skin—
a slow discovery, more felt than seen.
Beneath it, a freedom unfolds;
a bird released into water, numbing herself to melt memory.

The air turns crisp; the evening frost bites.
I grind my teeth at the shiver,
knowing this winter will not last long.

I look over to Esther;
she has been my muse for a week,
and now it is time to part.
It is wise, who believes,
to leave a place better than you found.
Esther has been better for me.

My wrist clenches around the knob of the iron door,
my back turned to her.
“Turn around,” she says;
I oblige her wish.
Our eyes meet once again,
heavy with unspoken desires and quiet longing.

A tear drops.
Our hands, still moist, remember touch.
My body pleads otherwise,
but my mind follows the rhythm
of my aching, breaking heart.

And I leave Esther.

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“Esther” is a poem about the sacred dance between muse and creator — an ode to longing, art, and the beauty of impermanence.