We are ragged at every corner, Languid and worn through Like something made of Unending heat - The stuff of legend. Burn bright, bright - Our breath returning And committed to flame, Memorizing ash and smoke. We are encased in our history, Kneeling in earth And the sky forming above us - Pressing stories into our skin. Burning and haunted, We belong here in between words - Bitten back and swallowed whole, And I know the curve of your spine Like the back of my own hand. We are blood-sealed - Still water underneath The wave that leaves us wrecked, And you are something else entirely - A new religion, Pillars of bone and soul, The first word and the first sigh - Love me. We are spiraling across raw desert, No urgency of force, And I am sea-deep And burning at your side, Drifting in that quiet catch Between breaths - The sun and the moon standing still Over Gibeon and Aijalon. What builds will also tear down, And we dream-walk toward the edge - Marked, changed, Primitive nerves - nocturnal creatures, The weight of worlds, And it goes on. We are lost, but not blind, And even here, We'll stand our ground.