SIENNA

by Dini Qistina Rashid

josh never knew how to love me less

he bore the brunt of boulders

as a testament to a snowglobed raven.

i trusted, time, if crippled by faith

would make exceptions for this camouflage

but i could only do so much.

sienna, did you know we loved you?

you could’ve had his temperament

the patience of a chartered lakeside

his lovingly angered knuckles

fucked through the plaster

into two extremes i cannot reach.

but josh, did you know i still loved you?

it was gentleness tethered to nothing—

but nothing was what we lacked

and josh, have we evaporated past the church bells?

winter nights seared my fingers, but scripts stuck.

ruthless me.

you could’ve held sienna in june.