Nights that were so long ago

Flicker in and out

Static... thick like an old

Silent film.

Backwoods...western Kentucky nights

Dirty, mud and rain

Singing Waylon and Willy

To the dark Slaughters night.

"I love you," you say.

I believe you.

Tequila

Warm, ripping my conscience

To mulch

"You too," I whisper, ashamed.

And disappear into the rain

(This is the product of a challenge. Only the first paragraph is mine, the rest are YOUR words. And thanks to all who participated. I am sorry to those who didn't get a chance to post. Next time I will allow more time to do so. I'll tag everyone [whose pieces are included] in the comments below.)

Love ricochets in haste

Bouncing off the dew

The cherry blossoms blink

And my heart reciprocates

Sweet chance resonating

A new beginning resounds

And reaches up through fertile death

Puddles of frozen past

Redemption awakes in springs

Of manifested lust

Hunger grows as blossoms fall

Lips seek one another in wet embrace

Bed of petals cushion their ardor

Shedding garments as passion flows

Desperation grips and surges

Hesitant thoughts aggressively tossed

empowered yearnings forage 

devouring unexplored meadows

that feed the ravished appetite

conceding to vulnerable aches

Only cured with crooked dignity 

between the sheets of heart & mind 

battling wanton desires to trace silhouettes 

of those who haunt my sleeping pillow

i drag my feet thru'

a quagmire of emotions

heart heavy sloshing with desire

sagging low to my groin

cuddled under the covers of sky

our hands see more than the eye

Do or die I can't deny 

a vie for the cosmic connection 

erection of bonds in every direction 

a predilection for pleasure over pain 

only to be bitten by my demons again

That bite seeping deep into virgin flesh

Exploding every pore with Alizarin Crimson fire

My name pouring from your tongue 

Exhaling delight reverberating haze

Licking the dripping flavors of you

I devoured you hungrily

The cool breeze did not dampen the raging fire inside

As the scented mix of crimson and falling pink heightened my desire for you

What chance did I have, 

Against such alluring enticement?

Inevitably, our bodies collide 

with a spectacular explosion - 

Breathtaking fusion, frightening intimacy,

Uncertain intent. 

The sky comes crashing down 

All around us.

Sinking like stones

On the bed that lies 

Hands clawing into the night 

Determined to rip through 

The flesh that craves such lies

Our breaths like raging storms

Filled with energy as we fall under

As passionate as the swirling wind

As loud as the rolling thunder 

Every touch lightning 

Sparking that lust within

& So Our Journey Begins

you & I Lovers Intertwined 

Through Cascades & Land Slides 

Our Mission UnFolds 

Tracing Tiny Spirals In Memories Hold 

How we Meat the Best Tale Told 

and as I feel your skin become mine

you sigh through your teeth

asking for a love you won't return

well-written chapters of silence

begging for the want of yesterday

The cherry blossom scents fall down around us

Reminding me of Niagara Falls and I get lost in the shooting stars of your eyes

Our fingers caress the secret pages hidden on each other's hips

That hold the stories we never shared

But we became the two protagonists of the same adventure:

co-authoring our book, 

we scattered our chapters across the world in our most intimate moments

like pink petals, divots of love in a bland landscape.

Our bodies and lifetimes are hopelessly entangled--

but I wouldn't want it any other way

As the graying sky reveals

Frost nipped buds, we arise

From our bed of crushed petals.

Earth turns, daylight wanes, yet we remain.

Your hands feel like forever.

Let the real adventure begin. 

As we take our first step into this world unknown

Wildflowers grew at our feet

Our love was overflowing from a memory

of last night's volcanic heat

The waves of passion

From crashing cliffs now laps the beach

True loves, truest form.

Eat the words we wish to speak.

Like the vines we once made love on,

My veins wrap around your feet.

Sparks of lust burning holes in my body,

Thoughts of caution now retreat. 

Three basic needs that existence requires:

to sate, to sleep and to slake, 

when distorted by the haze of desire 

become necessary steps to forsake;

for I have learned there is fuel in the fire

licking me, as I'm bound to your stake.

Breath deep to drink your heated breathe.

Worlds tremble, urgent shuddered release.

All is life, we succumb to bargained death.

Climb in to me, blood lust, love lust appease.

I am your heart, your meat, petit mort sired,

Forever one, gods of the impassioned, enfired.

Unravel my soul, siphon my sins

To crawl upon my skin

Drink my rain, tantalizing honey liqueur

Speak to my flesh, wake the ferine

Arousing passion,sultry rosebud bloom, open me

Enthroned, Sir

Forever one, Gods of impassioned, enfired.

A pause, shivering,

Like fog upon the mirror;

My heart, quivering,

Sudden doubt draws nearer.

And sands rush and race the encircled time stance, tall and flowing through hourglass confinement. Carrying dream sacks weighed down by bondage, a crime found lost, down the flow of silence. 

And as the sands crash over us, we breathe deep. 

This is life, this eternal crush. 

Our souls are blended deep beneath the rush of waves. 

We are limitless in our passion. 

There is fire in our veins. 

We are fed by the sun. 

As it falls,

It heals all,

As it heals,

It renews

As it renews,

Love appears.

How unfair a thing to befall us both,

That love requited in our great oath,

Is bound by flesh which surely dies, 

'Til we return unto the skies

Enantiodromia seems to be breathing me

Where sly worries fell aside, atavistically

where laments become the pride

Subsequeint looks and stories and I'm numb

      inside.

I arrived in time to behold

the glory of the curtains closed

Stage dark, players gone

Yet I hold your hand and hum along.

A new beginning resounds 

I remember the bangles

I remember the velvet

I remember that night in Monsoon

You're all soaked

Soaked enough to soak the angels

I being a mere mortal

Could've done nothing

but rid of you of all those

wretched,soaked velvet

I remember that night

Cherry blossom scent 

Dewdrop velvet night descent 

Emotional storm of passion swarms

the moment of my mortal life's end

Freedom I find within

Each time bangles chime

I replay the scene in my mind

Entwined our souls float as one,

I can caress your skin til the morning sun, 

The blood in my veins glows with your heat,

Lascivious as it may seem, there is no retreat.

Being you -- being me... No,

We can't be undone!

I thought it was a new beginning

I had my chance at love 

But as the cherry blossoms blinked

All I received was heartbreak

As Love ricocheted in haste 

Bouncing off the dew.

In the end I've learned / found four things that have led me to learning how to love myself.

Learn, accept, grow, and love

Learn - I avoided learning from things the way I should've most of my life. It wasn't until later down the line, when the pain I'd seen, and the scars it caused had added up. I think that's just what learning took for me. It wasn't until I had all the lessons in front of me I'd missed, that I finally figured it out. Our pain, our darkness, and our demons in life are for nothing if we don't learn from each experience that presented them to us. If I hadn't learned why I'm so damaged, I'd never had learned to accept how to live with it, and not let it define me.

Accept - It's been a hard life, but as I mature, I see the sense in it all. I'm able to find something, anything inside of all the insanity in myself, and my world. even the worst of it gives me the ability to not only understand why it happened (as it has shaped me into who I am today, which is someone I am fond of for the first time in my life) but to also accept the things that came with it because of what came from it. Acceptance is so important in life. It makes us see the world half full. With it in my world, I've finally began to love myself for the first time in my life. It's shown me how important it is that we build and grow in situations, and how to do so as well.

Grow - We all are handed cards in life that aren't easy. Some of us are even handed ones that hold coldness, and cruelty that we never should have had to handle in the first place. But it's up to us what we take from a situation. And it's taken me a long time to see, that the most important thing, if not the only important thing in any situation is if we grow from it. I've learned as an adult that even in the worst of my life, it's been worth it. Because (even if it took 10 years to finally hit me) I have grown from those horrible things that I've been through and seen. It's made me grow to see the beauty inside of it all. It's easy to when you gain even something small from something so completely terrible. I really respect myself for that. It's a lot of what's helped lead / is leading me to love myself.

Love - There is no other emotion in the world we should waste time feeling for ourselves, or our past, or what we have been through. Because bottom line is even the worst thing that has ever happened to us, has been a piece of what's made us the person we are today. It's more than just that, it's about loving what built our strength. What built our awareness. What built our honor. Our morals. Our Beliefs. Our truth. And our past, and present plays a role in so much of that. I could hate so much of the things I've been through. Or the scars I'm riddled with that I've carved into my skin because of those things. But instead I see the beauty in each and every one of them. Because they made me stronger, smarter, and in the long run they made me who I am. And the scars? Well they're my battle wounds. Just my little reminders of what I've survived. And I'm beautiful because of it. So are you wether you wear your scars on the inside or outside.

Just remember to learn from each thing you go through, accept the things that you cannot change, grow from every situation you find yourself in, and love yourself for every single inch of who you are through it all.

----

I fell a long way, down into the Abyss. 

Came out anew. Crawled out from the depths into a different world. I could feel a surge rippling beneath me, tremors of ancient power. 

A mirror's reflection, in eyes and glass, is the true deception. I am not the same underneath my skin suit. What would come of me, now that I could move the Earth? Pick up boulders like they were cotton balls. 

Bend steel as a child would bend licorice. 

I will not look my parents in the eye. They would see past the pale exterior and know I am not the thing that was birthed by them. What tales would their eyes tell as they gazed upon my becoming?

I thought I could bring order to chaos. I thought I could be made whole. 

I thought. 

A human bone is strong, durable. To my hands it becomes chalk, a burst of white powder the spreads across the air like the baker's flour table as he slams his fists upon raw dough.

He laughed at me. Cracked his chapped lips apart and howled out guffaws. A song bird chirping beneath the paw of a bear.

I made quick work of him, crushed his bones until chalk dust poured out of his body. Dead twigs snapping beneath feet. 

I hope I find the strength to stop myself. 

I hope.