Living Death

Living Death

You say you are afraid of hurting me.
Don’t you know the dead don’t feel?
Your resuscitation brings me to life.
I am as alive as you feel.
The enveloping darkness around me is pierced by a light.
And I try to rejoin the living.
Slowly, the faint stirrings of a pulse
Disturb my cocooned comfort of death.
Blood is reborn and sluggishly
And courses through my collapsed veins
And travels unerringly to my calloused heart.
A tepid temple brings a new melody
And as my calcified lungs fill,
I take a timid breath.
As I expel, you capture my exhaled breath in yours,
Inhaling deeply, sharply, and your heart beats against mine.
Encouraging, enticing, a matched tempo
Through you I live.
If I remain in darkness,
I fear you will join me there.
Strengthening, I take my own breath,
And wrap my empty arms
Around your hungry flesh.
I feed you with exposed emotions
As a mother feeds with her breast.
You give your impossible,
Baring yourself to my scrutiny.
Exposing your juggler to my mercy--my need.
I lean in and gently graze my lips
To your undulating pulse
And feel my heart awaken to your need.
My skin arouses and flames to your touch
Rippling of its own violation as
Your fingertips sweep my ribs.
I breathe deep and know
Death is a lonely darkness
Empty and forlorn
Together we live.