The Onset of Heartbreak

THE ONSET OF HEARTBREAK

Do voodoo queens dream of saints; do they lift their coffin lids, blinking in inky darkness, fluttering dead eyes, only to watch carrion open the sky to evening’s weeping?

Does the drowsing grass, heavy with autumn and as speechless as spirits, call forth the frenzy of Winter’s bite in order to end it’s own suffering? I wish that I could.

I reach for you in my sleep, wanting, yet feeling only the cold moon burning my fingertips, dreaming of ale green springtime shoots and sweaty summer sex, once again. I’d like, too, to plant the sweet alyssum that smells like honey and peace. This is why I sing about morning’s hush, the soft silk of fog on bare legs, the sweet dream of cherry lips or bubble gum tongue, and stars that forget themselves around you.

A body in desire is a spirit encased in a body which surrounds the spirit within, loving it the way the razor loves the beard, the way hunger feels about longing and need. Yet my body luxuriates in my pain.

And if we two are falling, unsocketed by life, shriveling like leaves withered in woods, we can only undream our final hours and moments, name them as the ash which we can taste.

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This prosery partly inspired by this line by Katherine Reigel - “I’d like, too, to plant the sweet alyssum that smells like honey and peace.” from the poem, “What I would like to grow in my Garden.”

As usual, I was fertilized by those fecund folks over at DVerse Poets.

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©2022 Christopher Reilley 

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