I wrote this poem for Cory’s birthday in February of 2020
all of your rage. wild. aimless. a fire. like you. kindled over a desire to care. to love. softly. warmly. yet still a fire... one who has known smothering. one that’s been left to wither alone in the dark. and still yearns to welcome. i won’t abandon you, my love. for, me, i’m like air. and we share a nature. loud and burdening. fanning. fawning. my breath will spread your body. like butter under your own heat. but at your will i can carry you to water. when fear burns hot i’ll call torrents for your torments. safely suffocating. my delicate hands around the throat of your release. the smolder from your frenzy will roll down my gullet like campfire. but when the smoke clears and your fields open don’t crumble, my queen. i know that all your chasms confess the haunting of your joy. the tiger stripe valleys running down your curves could throw kings into the stampede of your hurt. but mama i am like water. running through the cracks of your quarries. bring me your pain and i’ll wash over you. i’ll make mud of your mountains so when you bathe in yourself you’ll emerge with cracks that break only to make you whole. make you fresh. make you new. so that i may dig into you again. and this time. this time i will be the fire. not your cloudless blinding winter sun but your reprieve from the cold night. i’ll love you like you. like pond water mirrors a reflection distorted by the truth of your treasures. this time i will be the earth. and my only haunted ground will be the imprints of your climax sunken in my soil. a road map for you to find me. at your leisure. at your pleasure. this time. the atmosphere of our mutual worship. will vibrate like the sound of god. whatever they may be. shapeless. silent. sublime. safe. scary. like a cosmic pavlovian bell they’ll feel us and their mouths will water. like mine does for you. like your’s spills at my touch. they must experience us. like a fable we’ll root ourselves into morality. because this is right. and then they’ll carry us into the forests of forever. a movement. no. i’m not afraid of you. i’m ready