If You Are Here (So Am I)

Heavy looms the evening that ends with sunset’s final rays

for in this eternity of rising and falling

all colors bleed

to black.

Hollow be the glow of stars that burn like embers

for theirs is a death seen from eons away

beneath the endless sea

of space.

I am holding a prayer inside my palms that echoes like a whisper

spoken in a deep and narrow canyon

the meaning clear

even when the words don’t reach.

If the rivers were to stop their roaming

and the clouds were to cease in moving across open sky

I would run to you again

as I have always done.

There is a steadiness here, in the space between your breaths

and I find myself shaping the words I say

around the hollow points

of your shoulders.

I have found a spot between your ribs

where I can rest my head till morning

and hear the beating of our hearts

synchronize to one.

Chaos roams the streets as though she owns them

her long fingers curled around the loose ends of my errant thoughts,

but when your smile lands against my lips,

I no longer know her name.

Wistful is the way I walk beside you

our hands clasped together like the iron rungs of a gate

that will not open, the secrets of our love

held forever within.

I do not fear the last of sunlight’s rays

nor the dead stars or driftless clouds above our heads,

for I am not alone beneath their heavy gaze and I am looking

only at you.