Sunday, February 03, 2013


Death is dry
drier than I expected
(Though I did not expect to die)
It leaches every last drop of joy and hope from my bones
and bleaches them white
white as death

I am decomposed
unmade from what I once was

I try to breathe
but even the air is laced with sand and dust
and death

I think that I cannot resist this death
the dying
this drying up of life

I relinquish my hope
to let it buried here with my bones
covered over in dust
blown by the wind in timeless death across this dry valley


But you,
you will not let me go
not even in death

The urgent pounding of your footsteps shakes the ground beneath my dead, dry bones
as you rush to kneel by my side
You brush the dust from off my face with gentle fingertips
Your strong arms lift me from the desert floor
in a warm embrace against your beating heart

You press me to your beating heart
the steady rhythm breaks the silence

You smell of life
of rain and things that grow
of thick, dark soil
You smell of clouds
of sunshine
of laughter

Drawing me closer, you place your lips against my own
and breathe into my body
you breathe your breath into my lungs
My dead heart stirs

It cannot be
the dead, they do not live again

Yet over my dead bones, sinews creep
across the sinew, muscle spreads
and over muscle, new flesh wraps like healing bandages
Through it all pumps blood and breath
in the steady rhythm of your heart

Our two hearts beat as one
I am restored

I am restored.