Across ashen river 
again and again
and cold the wind
and my boat wracked and wrung.
The far shore nears at my assays 
’til oars snap and waves rend.
Serpents circle and crush
and river sludge spews and rots.
I swim barely back
dragged panting to shore 
lost half-drowned
and I stare sitting across 
and long for the passage

no boat will hold me ever
despairs the voice.
Never will I cross.
All is wide and fraught
and full of snakes
and of poison wind.
Fate stakes me on this beach
alone to watch the waves
and the unreachable shore

Never warmth before your face
last into dreams, first with the dawn

Never song before your voice
my heart a heat to boil the seas

Never breath before your scent
a bridge across the pale abyss

Never rest before your smile
did I once live before your touch?

Never light before your eyes
did my heart beat before your kiss?

Never peace before your love

Winking stars long dead
and moon’s calm eye
upon your gentle face.
Lips a downward curve,
and darkbright eyes wide
and alive.
Your gaze a flood,
rain and deluge.
A tempest louder
than all passions past,
and the sum of every kiss.
Your burning glance cleaves
the fog of past lives
and sunders the dark glass
of yesterday.
I tremble
shoulder shot to ear.
Ache and bristle
with your eye upon the abyss.
I break with the thought
that you sound my soul
and still cast such an eye upon me.

Mindshorn into legion
over green bubble-sea.
Roiling realities of white and rose.
An alabaster city,
each stab an embrace,
each thought a wraith.
She hovers over,
a balm, a guide,
fear-tonic and mender.
A kiss on my head,
wisps the thought-smoke
and I shear into ether.
Astride the chasm loop,
oroborus of thought,
twisted and rent,
and the maelstrom of a dream.
My néant and my expanse
gaze warm and oddly kiss.
These stars, this black.
No pain, no cries.
But calm death
and a shrewd smile.

Blazing soul of ink and cinder,
terror-struck and raw
worm-ridden and aflame,
over fiery doom-sea.
Womb-crusher and siren of night
treading bloody harm on all the world.
A shock, a stab along the jagged scar.
Writhe-shouldered and pain-cradled.
Raw-mouthed and pulsing.
Deafening drums of battle
and all foes hidden.
Blind watcher and sentinel
and all the world an enemy.
No faces but those of fury
and darkened souls ablaze,
and I the flame.

Life a blink, once staid and quiet,
again rough and raw.
A face of doom and cinder
a sea of woe and wonder
and a settling ring of thought
clasping the truth 
that a blink can contain such a thing as you.

Last red rays on silver sea.
Quiet rush in my ear
and cool grit on my skin.
Cheek painted by the breeze
and the cries of gulls.
My thoughts spin slowly
with the salt mist.
And my eyes remember you.

A stab, a slap, pin sharp and raw
and a sea of stars before my open eyes
Wake me, wake me
and show me the mystery

White and ashen, full of smoke and flame
and a wave, a river of fire
Look! See! Open your eyes
I will show you a secret

Quake and tremble, and cry an oath
of piss and blood, hot iron in your mouth
and your chest aflame
I have the truth, come and see

Blanket of stones and wreath of thorns
A blade deep sunk and putrid
I am your teacher
Pay mind to me

Pinned and swarmed
Flush with twisted cloth and flesh
The smell of all creation
and the warmth of a mouth and of a hand.
And each a lover and all entwined.
Collapse. Open and be taken
deep and full into all and many
and burn the flame of desire

I never told anyone
how you broke me in two
in three, in seven.
No witness to the cracks,
I lay and sundered.
Vast glaciers sliding into a dark sea.
With you next to me,
stitch mouthed and tight eyed,
I clove and split.
Here and there a puzzle.
Shattered pane of milk glass,
sharp and raw.
A weapon
A trap
Shearing all around.
I never told anyone
how you broke me in two