i find myself getting drunk off thick poison
and dancing with giddy devils
just to replicate what it feels like to crave you.
and with all the beatings of your heart,
with all the rising and falling of your chest,
with the rushing of the blood in your veins,
i, prisoner, you, sentinel.

i will pull air into my body
like a gambler pulls on a slot machine-
erratic, hopeful, desperate,
i can’t accept the oxygen into my lungs
until i know it’s passed through you.
cigarettes to lips,
bones on hips,
bursting blood on necks
and claws on backs.

king to queen,
master to mistress,
i am with you and without you
in every sense.
i am the sun when it rises,
the night as it sets.
i am the push and pull of the waves
and the heat under bodies
under rest, under rest.