You are a soulless cage
Candles burning out
Timber fingers grasping
At a bleak unforgiving sky
You wander to the dark place
Unable to illuminate
There were angels here once
"Fear not" "Do not be afraid"
Carved into the bark
Does anxiety always come before truth
Existential agony before God's bidding
If so, I am ripe, I am waiting
Prune my tree of life branches back
If I am not wick then I am wicked
I am shame bathed in myrrh
Did not former trunks
Hold the great burden of salvation
Is the cross before or behind
My lingering grave
Beckons for me
I do not fear the earth
Only where the mind goes
When the body cannot follow
What armies could kindness muster
To war against the unknown
Crucify yourself against me
The nails in my hands
Filter the light in
I am fighting a losing cause
A thousand fall to my side
Ten thousand at my right hand
Who will bury the dead
I thought only the roots of trees belonged buried
Yet coffins slip into soil
Sins under a night sky

You taste like forgiveness
If you know my name
Then you know my fears
We need not speak of such things

I went to the edge
My spirit falling back into my own body
I know nothing of this host
Burdened with consciousness
Do you too weary of your frame
What would you name your mortal coil
What tethers you
Love
  Flesh
     Mind
What is one without the other
Symbiotic in nature
They war
Preach peace
Labor your gentle touch against me
Unburdening my humanity
Of its languishing hold
You will fall one day too
One day soon
Know me now
Until the cliffs teach you of gravity
And bear your rebirth

I knew I felt something
When you could raise anger in me
But I could not hold it against you

I'm watching you measure
Distance between us
It sounds like it should be painful
When we are this way
I have already lived my penance
Yours will come
Welcome it when it is here
I cannot speak for another journey
My feet belong to my path
Your heart to another
We are not strangers
Strands between us a delicate web
You could have loved me once
Could have passed closer to the sun
Yet your dark side turns
We eclipse
When the heavens allow
There is nothing more for me here
I have light for the whole solar system
Do not diminish
What you will not place
At the center of your orbit

Do you remember when we were in the desert
Sand absorbing all the heat of the sun
Pressing it into our bodies
As though we need to be forged anew
You and I are no strangers to burning
Not above being molded to another will
Hammered over and over, iron against iron
We were sharp in the beginning
We have grown dull in the last days
Humility did not follow
We hold the pride of our youth
As a double hilted sword
Warring against what time would make of us
Soft and ancient
I did not know we would always be changing
We are young, then less so, then we sleep
As we have been tired this whole life
Not tired, just dreaming, and aching, and human

Open air hangs between us
A bitter cloud
Your hands could slice through
Fingers, freshly sharpened blades
Your words cut
As they are spoken
I cried once
You said you had never seen
Eyes so blue with ice
So bright with fire
So void of hope
I tell you I am drained
I pour my waters
Over the cliffs of time
Into your cupped hands
Are you waiting for me
Or waiting for me to leave
I prayed to my old gods
For you before
I fear they did not give me
Wisdom or strength
Shutting my third eye
To the appearance of truth
The glass of transparency
Is not a mirror
The shadow that is your name
Written in the sky
Casting it's hollows down
These are not stratocumulus
Not nimbus
Not shapes we know
Not the silver lining
We prayed for you
I went to the well to draw water
Why do I still know thirst