the deep grey swoon

The deep grey swoon

came out of the blue
Or did it?
Not quite himself today
I’d thought
A strange day for me
all in all
hemmed in and snagged

A faint ray of my mother

and then
hiding behind the sun

a hint of

Melancholia

He stood in the grass

in the shade of the cottage
waiting

it seemed

to take his next step

His gaze fixed at the sky

mouth agape

feverish cheeks
the naked blanched lips

of a mannequin

and those eyes I can't ever seem to

recognize or
forget

We watched

and waited
until it was sure
—the seizure—
and though he remained
still as a stone
Daddy plucked him like a fallen branch
and carried him

up the steps

inside
to the green couch ...
this gone

boy

Six thirty-four
I said
and he gulped

and gasped
pale as an agate

or a shard of frosted sea glass

sinking into sand
and we called to him
beckoned him back

our most 

splendid boy
from the deep grey
swoon