traveling with the cold and dancing
with brittle fluttering leaves,
every window on the street void of light,
the glass panes mimic the mysterious lenses
I see when our eyes meet,
when I search them over and over.
Noting the specters that breathe inside
and how they live in your touch,
in the shivering I feel from the sleeping body
wrapped up in my arms,
in scenes from another life.
And when this time of year comes,
winds will howl through the roads,
draw you to the bedroom window
to watch the streets below silently tear apart.
In that soundless destruction,
I’ll always wonder if you can hear me
as a murmur outside.
If you look through the trees,
the bare skeletal giants standing guard against
the dark blanket of the sky,
where you search for any illumination
to guide you through the night.
For all the motion in the world
to surrender itself to you,
if only for a fleeting blink,
to find what you’ve been looking for,
if it’s me your gaze halts on,
I want to be there even when
Something dark has taken root inside me,
traveling through blood and sprouting around cells,
every door once open now void of light,
the rattling locks aching for the right keys,
the shadows in them mimic
the mysterious corners revealed
when your eyes look away,
when I search them over and over.
Noting the specters that live inside
everything once shared between us,
and I still have so much more to tell you,
in scenes missed no frames from another life.
And when this time of year comes,
winds will howl through your house,
draw you to the front door
to watch the world silently tear apart.
In that soundless oblivion,
I’ll always wonder if you can feel
me in the air outside.
If you look through the twisting leaves,
through the jagged lightning flashing along
the dark blanket of the sky,
where you searched for any illumination
to guide you through the season.
For all motion in the world to cease,
if only for a fleeting blink,
to find what’s been missing in you,
if I am what you find in that stillness,
I want to be there.
No matter what darkness has rooted itself inside me.
