Tempter, I grow impatient. My need for closeness is a run over rocky terrain. I yearn for my legs to stop moving, my muscles to stop aching, my breath to find my body. It only moves in slow creeping motions, an eclipse on my reality, a blindfold to my control. My darling I do not exist alone. Alone I am fever- a raging plague of disease. My burnt parts float away as ash to the graveyard- to bury all they are. Love, I walk in my bones. Stripped of my true being I rattle and moan, a skeleton resurrected. Soon my feet my crumble away, and I will snap apart limb by limb and fall to the ground as sharp pointy bits. Then what am I, my dear? Do I get pushed into the earth and remain nothing more than diminished pearls to the naked eye, or will a creature carry me away with their talons? Tempter you defeat me. Only when I leave the battlefield and return home do I realize I pulled the trigger. I thought I would run from the war and save myself. When truly, I fired the shot heard around the world.

written 2010