"the girl on the coast"

"the girl on the coast"
written as a distraction by jake kilroy.

all the lights stirred in her glass of ice water on the coast,
and i did my best to not laugh at another new yorker poem
about soil, about leaves, about youth, about "my father's house."
her words didn't fly. they set sail, a breeze off wet lips,
telling me it was late, but not too late,
and that the moon would come to us tonight,
big and ethereal—the only chandelier of the west.
so the clouds left her mouth and drifted along the cliffs,
while i thumbed through advertisements
to the breaths she took in as a waltz,
both waiting for a sunset we'd try our best to swallow.
what i'd give to be, i thought,
unsure how to finish the sentence.