There is no yesterday, no tomorrow;
We can’t afford the sheen of memory—
I like my waters fractured and disturbed,
Lost in the riptide and the firmament.
Horizons fall in tepid confusion,
And there we find myself adrift, ensnared
By grasping stars you pinned on rigid domes
To spite their avarice.

I miss the void, before cruel time arose,
Where every touch beheld eternity
And every tear fleeting, illusory.
You think I envy you, but my sin sings
In liminality, strewn between grace
And sacred sorrow; for humanity
Is wiser than angels ken, yet still rent
Before sublimity.

We bleed fragility, as if the skies
Were lighted so we could see our steadfast
Limitations, could feel infinity
In a mortal raindrop, before the earth
Destroys its radiance without a thought.
And you, remote as pitiless starlight,
Won’t take my soul although I plead for peace.
Why can’t I just not feel?

I cannot change empyreal fate, but you
Invade the false paradise in my mind,
Burn away the self-deception, reveal
The barren cliffs that pierce my delusions;
Leave me bare, naked as the damnèd souls
That realize their guilt, and pave the path
To cold salvation. Your caress will rend
That which I thought I was.

    I shatter at your fingertips, alone:
    Please, I’ll do anything. Don’t let me fall;
    It’s too far, I can’t. I can’t. But your wings,
    Shredded by my fears, ours, melt with the sun.
    We land together; my back, my soul, breaks.
    From dust I came, to ashes we return.