back in those days
when i still believed in the
unbelievable, i would have loved you so
deeply underneath a lifetime of
the sweetest dreams as dense as night
as strong as undercurrents
you would have discovered
what it was like to be loved like that--
stinging and tender...

or perhaps you have been loved like that
by others repeatedly
and it meant nothing.

i always daydreamed of
being held by you
under the stars
on a foggy mountaintop
as the thunder grumbled in a foreign tongue
and i felt the electric familiarity
of your kiss

and told you that if you ever left me
my heart would turn to deep sleep
and somewhere for years to come
i would dream of acts i could not name
in the darkness of my heart
that would sneak your cherished body
into the thorny terrain of my blood,

my blood that now
has become as treacherous
as you are