For River

After To The Moon

When I run out of road, there will still be you.
Your lighthouse heart. Your pickled olive mouth.
Your hand on my knee as we drive
towards whatever complications
the future decides to gift us.

If I go to the moon,
will you meet me there?

I would reinvent the sky if it meant
you could find your way back.
If the years could reverse themselves
and bring you home to me.

Maybe if I ache enough, I can
bring you forward from the past.
Maybe if I hope enough, we can
make our way through a universe
that has never been big enough to hold us.

I have never been enough to hold you.

Extra Lives is a monthly videogame poetry and prose column by Rachel Tanner.