"I'm okay."
"I'm okay."
"I'm okay."

Simple words.
As you say them over and over the syllables begin to distort.
They begin to dance lucidly through the white noise that fills my skull.

The words twist and drip through my teeth.
They slip past my lips like wine.
They fall upon hungry ears; ravenous for reason.

I am left alone with my static.
My silence.
Amongst cold coffee and soured cream.

My skin is goosebumps.
The tingle of the thunder's crack.
The caress of the mountain breeze.
The exhale of a lover against the base of your spine.

I cling to you like an island.
My bones, glass, beneath my skin.
Shifting.
My muscles turning from flesh to ash.
Crumbling underneath.
My body feels foreign.
No longer mine.

You hold me like a lost child.
A lost child who's family died long ago.
As if the love in my soul is the last of a spring almost dry.
The drips from your tap.

I am your last project.
Your last carrier dove.
You are my home now.
I will dig roots beneath your feet.
Roots deep enough to find the warmth in winter.
Strong enough to withstand the test of time.

A passion for you courses through my veins.
Kerosine on the embers that my heart once was.
A desire uncontainable.
A love unimaginable.

We are as strong as the Appalachian mountains.
The purist of waters.
The sweetest of honey.

These are the dreams that dance among the static.
In between the broken syllables and the lies on my lips.

But no, really. I'm okay.

"I'm feeling so small. It was over my head, I know nothing at all."