They Rise

the pen slides lucid across my wrists; onto clean white paper ballpoint breath of cold blue faint trickle of sentiment seeking the warm pulse of her neck the sentences run on in whisper... but are these words better off unlistened to, unheard of? do you know where my thoughts have been, she says? how I've thought of nothing else but hunger and your kiss like breadcrumbs dusted unto my thighs and the fingers aren't as quick as thoughts they forget things they travel on memory and touch when I'm alone at night they roam wishing on black stars of remembrance my words she says corrupting the blinding white expanse with avarice yet making it purer somehow we cannot go it alone so these vows I bear with you shadows will log our journey building their crusades on thin blue lines I am writing this for both of us my hand cramps i cannot shake these feelings of troubled love they clog my knuckles like arthritic bloodthoughts so i write them out in slanted sentences waiting for the wine to leave them sober i lay awake most nights my eyes writing poems on the ceiling they rise and stain my prayers for us like smoke.

© d. durand worthey, 2002-10-16