Before Disappearing into the Fog

of dust & darkness 
I remember spring in Los Angeles 

near the coast 
means fog and how 

the chill can make morning 
a confusion 

a fog of minuets 
in Mozart’s notebooks 

can’t compete with it 
the fog’s true desire 

this morning 
a fugue infusion 

for the piano 
while I coax spring 

from slices of cantaloupe 
their ripe hips 

a fog of juice 
caught above my chin 

a sticky chill 
I shiver in 

fog blankets the spring 
we must embrace it 

here near the sea 
soaked in fog 

where feathered radiance 
streaks the sky 

the heat of light 
burning off grief 

overnight 
where the cream bursts 

in a fog of bulbs 
strolling the arms 

of magnolia branches 
an erotic alarm 

the way the geese 
above foggy lagoons 

keep on erupting 
their horns 

a wing of music 
that slaps the fog silly 

lifting my despair 
that will die 

in a fog 
meeting yours 

our fog of dark notes 
sprung like birds               

we inter in the sky 
before we’re buried alive                  

From Ruined Beauty (Walton Well Press, 2026) by Michelle Bitting. Copyright © 2026 Michelle Bitting. Reprinted with the permission of the author.