as the song fades out and becomes
a final chord to follow you into
your dreams and paint the
walls you curiously touch,
trace your fingertips along before
stepping out of the house.
You follow the cold night air,
ghostly mist swirling around when
you exhale and dry leaves crunch beneath your bare feet,
following a path to the woods,
the familiar trees and faint sweet cinnamon scent of the same forest
where we first kissed when I chased
the music of your laughter as the only
beacon guiding my legs along cool soil and
pale moonlight until we embraced and I
only knew the feel of your body pinning mine against a tree
And your lips claiming me as yours and only yours.
And even though you move through here
alone now you know a presence is near,
that memory has its own energy that
follows our every step and carves
itself into our sleep.
Your eyes grow entranced by a
rainbow of lights pulsating,
flickering the closer you get to where
we already met but it was the first place
we truly began to know each other.
But, like all dreams, the conclusion
comes before the mystery is
solved and you awaken.
Unaware that I also dream while
sleeping close to your warm bare skin
Where you make all that cradles
me like you once said,
when you confided in me that
you wanted to fill my heart with
volumes books cannot contain,
longing cadences no creature could ever mimic,
how you wanted to stare into
me and make illuminations beyond
any known spectrum of light.
The final glow when I slip into sleep
and let memory after memory stitch
together and make a tapestry of you
that I’ve devoted every night to remembering
But like explorers who could once only
travel by the placement of stars and hand-drawn maps,
I can only go so far each time and
the needle within the compass I hold endlessly spins,
telling me each direction and
destination you have made
for me is just as important as the last.
I follow every new dark ocean
and know that your presence
is here in each coast I drift to,
that you’re every ripple in the water
beneath and even if I crash you will be the
ocean wrapped around me as absolute and
natural as the way your arms wrap
around me now as I sleep
And you are each night the darkened sky
is edged with dawn’s light before I
awaken to your face near mine,
the same love that claims me
as yours and only yours.
