Pearls Like Parchment

The cradling sea
which lulls me to sleep
sought your oblivion to
s a v a g e
my atoms
and every one of them
ignited for you.

And so I am nothing
after your malignant hurricane;

because you were
the salt and
the sea and
my air to d r i n k
and the waves and
my tumult of life.

Your swelling sea
is drowning me

yet I let you
savage e v e r y
o n e
of my atoms.

Asphyxiation
validating,
yet you r e b i r t h
my mourning waters.

To crystalline wine -
suddenly
I am becoming -
a dead thing
yet shimmering;

i n t o x i c a t i n g
and transparent.

I am so

s h i f t e d

in your
murking
masquerade.

Because you closed
my lungs
with just a
touch but I made you
stop at my ribs -
for you filled me
to the brim

and you were my
numb and pruning
fingertips.

As the vast,
you parched my
t o n g u e

and sucked
my lips
to
v i o l e t.

You are
every bruise
and contusion
and I love my
boundless
wrought;
to r o t
and
consume
every inch of me.

Except I had you
e n d
about my neck;
for you begat my
perishing breath.

See -

you are my
cradling sea;
my love like
misery;

you are choking
your
paramour
in the pressure
here
at your floor;

my
o c e a n.