I read once
That change happens from the edges
And I guess it did.

Things changed.

Like the beckoning ombré of dawn
A crescent of blazing sun leaking fire into a darkened canopy
Melting blackness into softened caramel hues
Oozing warmth into shivering skin

Like the curling edge of paper and tobacco
Kissed with delicate tongues of flame
Creeping towards unsteady fingers
As unspoken words evaporate into the air
In smoke signals made illegible with insecurity

Like the seeping ink across a Polaroid
In transforming colours
Sweeping through the empty blackness in a burst of vitality
Revealing the snapshots of perfection that might lie beneath
If we had the courage to shake up the blank squares of our own lives

Like the stormbound waves on a cliff face
In daily embrace
Bound together by forces of nature
To give and take, reforming each other with each brief contact
As we reshape the world
With unstoppable creation and beautiful destruction.

Things changed.

Until the glimmer from the corner of my eyes
Became the blinding light in the centre of our vision
Until instead of orbiting the periphery of your world
You were the centre of mine
Until our edges blurred
And I realised
I don't remember a time before you
Before us
Before we changed

For just a moment
Would you slip away with me
Into dark corners of anonymity 
Could we lose the fear.
The consequence.
Can you loop your fingers in mine with the simplicity of a lover 
And push aside the flush of watching eyes.
Be the steady tide in my ocean of melancholy 
And wash away these familiar faces 
With their poison darted tongues
Glass hearts overflowing 
With the bitterness of realism and lost ideals 

Can we lose our pretences
Our falsities and masks
And let our minds meet in serenity 
Sheltered from a world of turmoil 
From wars and tears
Outward pressures and inner conflicts.
Lets live instead within honesty and earnest hearts 
In hidden tracks and secret words 
Where we can speak our own truths in roaring solitude 
In silent riots that enflame my heart and remind my soul to sing

In this moment 
Can I be nameless
Faceless 
Can I disappear into the love behind your eyes 
And be remade inside the warmth of your opened arms 
Can I vanish from the humdrum 
From the familiarity of the accepted
And walk with you down foreign streets of passion and vitality 
Hand in hand 
Two beacons alight with fire 
Standing tall against an encroaching dusk of normality and routine 

Just for now
Can we be anonymous
Can we be unknown 
Maybe then we can learn to know ourselves

I saw the other side of you today
The flip side to your coin 
Beneath the sparkle of joviality and passion
When we strip away the gloss of illicit corners and barely touching hands
Rinsing away the heady throws of passion and your alcoholic aftertaste 

I saw your rage
The underbelly
There was no beauty in your hurricane 
Only fear and anger 
The constellations I once saw in your eyes turning to pitch 
Maybe they were just reflections of my own

I saw you change. 
I don't think I know you anymore 
I'm not sure I ever did

We are slaves to time
To the incessant push of the clock
The unstoppable progression of reality
But all I need is the shadow of a second
The fraction of a moment
When I plunge head first
Into the endless wonder behind your eyes 
Those treacherous eddies that pull me closer 
Steal my words and break my calm 
A willing victim to your inescapable currents, 
That sweep me 
In the skip of a heartbeat 
To blankets of stars and open fields 
The kiss of moonlight on wine flushed cheeks 
Bodies warm against the envious frost of the air 
To the salty tang of sea swept lips 
Interlocked fingers and tangled hair 
The surge of the ocean in steady unison
With the beat of two hearts melting into one
To the safety of privacy 
Of black and white idols and flickering screens
Fictional wonders shared under sheets of adoration and mutual understanding 
In comfort and freedom 
To finally be as one

I travel the world with you
In a momentary glance 
In a murmur of breath 
In the single tick of a clock face 
Why be the enemy of time
When in your eyes 
I have forever.