If Darkness Could Speak

The world shifts,
Carried on a sigh through the dark.
It's too much, it's too soon -
It's all raw and broken edges,
Like crawling through broken glass.
Of course it matters - we exist.
Buzzing, itchy silence
Carries on a gentle exhale,
Flying through the empty night,
All around us like tiny diamonds
Shattered by too many breaths.

If darkness could speak -
All jagged edges smoothed over by honey -
It would speak in the quiet moments,
The brief pauses in the pulse and throb
Of our world when we are alone and together
And the sky isn't raining fire
And we can breathe with our whole bodies.

I can taste your fever -
It cuts clean and lands deep,
Your silence tenderly stealing my words,
Love drilled out by grief
And need trumped by obsession.
Sickness flickers over my vision,
My skin sizzles and shudders -
Heat and sweat and pretending to sleep
For the last time before the hellhounds come.

I know you feel the weight
Of it like a ghost,
Drifting through smoke-filled
Rooms inside your head,
Our youths well misspent.
Time suspends itself on a gasp,
And I do not hope for a better world
In the seconds between breaths,
In the spaces between sleep,
In the empty corners of the room
Where nightmares take refuge.