Aura
Emily Berry


listen to me                         little water
I called you up        believing something
would arise                   i n me believing
I could make                     you reappear
on my way                    to the cemetery
every face was                        luminous
as if they knew            something about
the dark                               I think you
were in us all             reminding me not
to despair or if             despairing know
that we did not             lose each other
either side                    of the calamity
we fused                      you went inside
& I could not                            see you
but afterwards                    afterwards
I could see                       underwater I
could see in the dark           I could see
with my eyes closed     I could see past
the shimmer that   separates the living
and the dead I knew there was nothing
no separation                      it was just
aura the most                    remarkable
sadness &                      if only I would
keep looking                I would see you