Sarsaparilla Kiss

We lay in glens fringed with green,

gums tangled with leaves that gleamed.

We walked the paths hand in hand, 

and fell in love in this golden land. 

It seemed we’d stay that way together,

but now you’re tearing away forever.

I thought that when our time was done,

our woven souls would rise above.

Now not two, we’re one and one.

You fly away to shores unknown. 

I wither, wound here,

with sarsaparilla near,

the leaf with veins in triples. 

One was you and one was I, 

a third straight through the middle.

Alone on the edge of the forest,

I reach over endless waters.

But with nothing to climb,

like our vine, so entwined,

I fall short of those invisible borders.

Sarsaparilla kiss,

that lingering taste of licorice,

so sweet but tinged with bitterness 

because I know that it’s our last

before the sea sweeps us apart.

by Kayleigh Greig