Atonement

Tomorrow I name you ‘my love,’
my love; and set the world just so

the way the turn of a dovetail
joint snaps; unremarkable

as a sandpiper tip-toeing, light
as a leaf, across the big city shore.

But tonight I have the good sense
to leave early, awash in a cinereous sloth

of sackcloth and ashes
that enlist the dark

and spell out your name
and then shudder: come back.