If the raging wind
calls a name
tossing aside a crumpled
weathered version of a child
then the bonds that meet heart
with its insufferable dreams
and the reach of the piercing stars
pretend a life
we lay bare and unbelievable

love torn from the arms of the heart
by the vicious rule of the ******
ripping voice from voice
ripping heart from heart
and set against the cruelest numbers
of ancient standards
touch becomes dust
and love lays choking in ash
pretending a life
we lay bare and unbelievable

watching the attrition
the insatiable hunger of life
that consumes
the beautiful ones you planted in your heart
the angels worn down by
loving too much
by being too much
and the ones taken
by split the second timing of fate
casting reason into a tattered realm
of emptiness
we pretend at life
that lays bare and unbelievable

and so
cutting deep into the soul
bleeding out the sum of yourself
grasping that cold cutting jagged edge of existence
lays something to rest
movement anywhere across the compass
is knowing a love for the pain
for it is the entirety
of
you