I think of you
A collapsing star
Your pain like the day the world began
So powerful
Your mind like
The day it will end
Scalding pure.

My heart is like a furnace tonight  
Blue white
And my bones are full of rainwater
Cold now
But heating up

Shame
For all my shrieking
I am whole
Like an egg
Uncracked
I do not think anything
Grows
In here
But the shell
Is smooth
And that seems to count for something.

Still
I am buried
And the soil above me
Churns—
The skitterings of beetles
Something with wings that whir.  
I grip the door frame
That dark mouth
And wonder if I am coming to life
Or leaving it

I am iron
A tea kettle starting to boil
It sings and screams
And hisses out a thread of steam.

The burns slide up my arms like little snakes.

And yet you are here
Still
Here like a sun
Calling the blood in my veins
And it answers
Pounding—

It would rather be with you than me.