Watching Her Sleep
I'm ready to give all up at any given moment
Though I swore to never give it away
My voice falls, breathless, in this endless grid of streets
Where an angel-faced beauty cries herself to sleep:
I will fall with the fallen, a halo unnameable
A wreath of coal, unseen, unmistakable
Unknown, uncouth, but in conviction unshakeable
When we kissed. . .
Under your breath you spoke: "until death," under the table
Between us, before God, and behind us now
Like sister and brother, and the word and the sound
I'm in love, in debt, so intently sensational. . .
But it's here, then it's past, always largely intangible
And what parts you can grasp are just fleetingly fanciful
It's through acts, and through hopes, and regrets that it's named:
Either purpose on high, or staving off of pain
But the angel-faced beauty says it's love insatiable
And so it is returned in kind. . .
to bind us, to bleed us,
to cry and to please us,
to twist and to tease us,
remind us of Jesus:
it's never to leave us.