It's an honest deception 
That swallows us whole -
Calling us to ground
With stilled hand and grieving bone,
And in the sun,
Blue eyes split with gold -
In firefight,
Framed by pitch and madness.
Your smooth, curving vines
Burn in beats of quiet,
Galaxies between your words.
Call me nothing
But a name that pleases -
Blood, anguish, hero -
I'm not the savior you need -
Only the one you've got.
Worn scar-thin -
The exact moment 
I'm dragged down and redeemed,
We choose our breath
As a world looks on in silence.

Time passes,
And we are worn down by it -
Rich earth and burning night
All around us,
And eyes shut tight.
Stories told in silence,
Shadows pulsing on skin - remembering-
We know this path by heart,
In the valley of the river -
And time presses in 
With suffocating heat.
Bruised and torn,
We grasp for purchase.
Swift and soundless, we rise -
And we are full of reckless fire,
Blazing hearts and each word burning -
Seething over bones
And pulling warmth back under our skin.
We move as we please,
Graceful indeed -
Blue eyes tearing apart the darkness,
Sparks shooting across the empty sky,
Bourne wild on the night air -
Light spreading out,
And we watch - ordinary men -
The darkest and the most dangerous,
And the rhythm we cannot hear,
We feel in our bones instead,
Leaving memories like boot prints -
Scars in the dim light of another day,
The light breaking as it has done
For thousands of years,
World without end, 
And we cast our lot with gods.
The sky is magnificently clear.

This is older than sea and sky,
Shape without form,
Sinking in and spreading out -
Until we feel.
We hear it across miles and miles,
Sharing breath and need
As we forge something
Stronger than death.
We are scars and grace,
Waves swelling under
Our drifting fingers.
We know what it means to fall,
Creeping over the earth we crafted,
Sin trembling over hollow words -
Hollow bones,
Dancing under mountain spine
And bleeding moon -
For we are the children of stardust,
Fashioned from magic
Older than blood and marrow,
And we do not bow.
There is no place -
No temple for us but everywhere,
And we have always been more,
The world beneath our mighty boots.
But what can build up
Can also tear down -
Swimming with stars,
You're mine to save,
And we rise to our feet - remade.

We are ragged at every corner,
Languid and worn through
Like something made of
Unending heat -
The stuff of legend.
Burn bright, bright -
Our breath returning
And committed to flame,
Memorizing ash and smoke.
We are encased in our history,
Kneeling in earth
And the sky forming above us -
Pressing stories into our skin.
Burning and haunted,
We belong here in between words -
Bitten back and swallowed whole,
And I know the curve of your spine
Like the back of my own hand.
We are blood-sealed -
Still water underneath
The wave that leaves us wrecked,
And you are something else entirely -
A new religion,
Pillars of bone and soul,
The first word and the first sigh -
Love me.
We are spiraling across raw desert,
No urgency of force,
And I am sea-deep
And burning at your side,
Drifting in that quiet catch
Between breaths -
The sun and the moon standing still
Over Gibeon and Aijalon.
What builds will also tear down,
And we dream-walk toward the edge -
Marked, changed,
Primitive nerves - nocturnal creatures,
The weight of worlds,
And it goes on.
We are lost, but not blind,
And even here,
We'll stand our ground.

We are worn from the inside out,
Warmth and solidity at our backs
And your light at my feet.
We feel it like fingers under our skin -
Tired bones and songs we've never heard.
Waiting, trusting -
Scars and another day ending.
We desire dark roads
And night air on sunburns,
Peace - we never even wanted good.
The last sunrise of a dying man -
We know this song,
And we soak up poison -
Wishful thinking sending tremors into graves.
We've always known.
Where is my light?
Shine.

No living man can be
Wiser than the dead;
We are the sins of our histories -
The revelation that we bear
Weary and cracked like old stone,
Spoken in the only tongue
We've left ourselves.
We consume what we love,
And we don't feel it when it's gone -
Roaming temples
And wine-dark chambers,
Fire and blood baked into our bones
And dancing on our skin
Like Melusine in Avalon.
We are full of ashes and regret;
****** and blessed -
The beginning and the end
Dragged across burning black
And the sun climbing down the sky.
And you - transformed
To be held against my breast.
Caged and tamed for the hunt,
We taste like our heroes -
Like another memory
Spilling over the dry earth,
And we could sleep for years
If we could close our eyes.
The air hangs warm and clear;
A new world in our wake -
And we will bring each other home,
Like we did when we were young.

We hold candles and a sense of place,
Drinking down words
Painted and ground into our flesh -
The last remains of fire and smoke
Burning our hands like an old friend.
We are worn from the inside out,
Shedding dreams and heat -
Sweet words-
Your story still fresh on my skin.
Silver moon and serpentine galaxies
Wrap around us like honey
And the spoiled husk of the serpent,
Catching our image in frost
And holding it -
Stars like spilled gold and lightning -
Remember.
We need something
Beautiful about us.