somewhere

"Sink my bones
in the shallowest moat,"
I heard Ella say,
dressed to the nines--
with her shoes untied,
flowers for eyes, and
glass palms full of sand
slipping through two hands.

We owned no castles
to paint on easels
but if we did, I'd know
it was her magic lie,
with walls so high
they brushed heaven's tide

where they swept up a smile
lost somewhere
in the desert.