Melanie – Michael Roque

January 31, 2026

Every few years,
the 4 a.m. of my life eclipses forward motion.
My socked toes under Tel Aviv sheets,
sink into the sand
of my old Venice Beach—
and before me—
the finely designed bottle
I found on its shore
with a message inside
waiting to be read by the world.

Her time before living eyes—
brief.
I caught a mere glimpse
through multi-colored glass,
a sentence she wanted to speak.
With meaning at mind’s grasp—
rough hands smashed her to shards—
tossed her message into the ocean
to float above the abyss
from where she was born.

A human prophecy
unfulfilled—
the bottled illumination of 2005,
the lighthouse that signaled me in
from the storming tide of SoCal despair—
long dimmed in 2026.
Days by the thousands—
decades drizzle away
from the wild of her time
into the curated chaos of today.