embers elope slow

Where would we have met

Had I never pulled the spark?

Welcomed in some timely friends,

Intertwined with midnight’s silks

Head first off of a sun-kissed cliff,

Reached for the only glimpse that whispered

In nearly two decades of dark?

For once, I remember skin

As a delicacy and smoldering life—

No longer a trail of failed legacy

Or remorse for those who follow me

Revitalized in ways which clasps

A spiritual hand upon my mouth

Like I’ve caught wind of life’s little secret

And you’ve been awaiting the day I hear it

Shadows dance along the trim of broad shoulders;

You’re a dancer between two auras,

The flux of limbs in languages I’ll never know again

So we breathe until the fire cools

While you watch each of light’s many hands

Make way for your embrace along my hips

Watching embers elope slow…

Anticipating that they succumb,

Though they never did.

And so we kept life’s little secret.

- M. Rose