Hourglass Sextant

I bent down to pick them up

as I reached into the opaque fog

I disappeared in the opalescence

and my footsteps faded into memory

when I reached into the opaque fog

I told myself that some dreams are more real than others

and my footsteps faded into memory

somewhere in time 

I told myself, some dreams are more real than others

when the light particles disintegrated

somewhere in time

with the bones of a whale on the beach

the light disintegrated

and I reappeared from the opalescence

with the bones of the whale on the beach

I bent down to pick them up

Altar At Baker Beach

It was a deep night. No moon

I said, “fuck it, let’s go.”

We walked under secret streetlamps toward the threshold

understood we would not return the same

Sliced our eyes in the jet night

the giant orange archway reflected onto the beach

its lights setting the waves ablaze like gasoline

You spoke first…

then said, “Okay… now you. Tell me, what about you?”

I said,

“Look… the Golden Gate Bridge… it’s like a living altar, it remembers each one.”

Figures shuffled up and down the shore like holograms

their silhouettes shapeshifting in the shadows

I wondered… Who are they? What are they? How did they get here?

As we rematerialized in the parking lot

you picked up an empty bottle to recycle it

You said,

“This is my sanctuary, it’s all that I have.”

M.H. Lopez is a poet, editor, nature lover, and longtime resident of the Sunset district in San Francisco, California. He holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, and an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. He is the founder of Lone Mountain Literary Magazine, and a co-editor at Mumber Literary Magazine.

Check out his IG page, mhlopez.poetry, to see his full list of previously published material.