For now let’s start with silence. Wrap silence around. Make no sound, act no life. Make those moments pass. Make him lay there dead like, make no sound. So leave those runway lights on.

Leave the rest to the crosswinds. Heave to. Fuselage soaring, hands caught in lightning. But leave those runway lights on. As Jay comes to, sense a man rowing in. So fix it, make him escape.

Run from channels of salt, flee from creek of shadows. Swiftly make Ray make swift escape. Distant cries muffled dry but tethered outcry. One shouts, two scuffle. 

Now open your eyes. See ghouls, see ghouls. 

Gas lanterns wheeling wildly. Hands on the runway, lightning. Pass from his lips, the gritty salt. Spray to his skin, the stinging rain. Airman Jay. Airman Ray. How far out to sea did we let the boys be?

Prepare for the last dim shout from the shore. End the mainland chase. For now let's have all the buoys, all the buoys. Far in the singing sea, all the buoys. Boys all down, then up again…

Then down. Then down.

(An earlier version was published in The Thumb Print Magazine)