The Gift

Lived, loved, and left—indulging each whim, each feeble and fleeting desire, Heating blood as quickly as we cooled. Extinguishing flames our happiness had overruled, Spooled up and wound so tightly and Spinning in the pursuit of pleasure. I slowed to a stop when I met you, watched you scale me all the way up to my jagged ledge, wedging yourself into my cracks and rooting yourself to me, and I held fast to you, asyou did not like this sensation of dangling, a tenuous hold of vine to rock, of scraping to steadyyourself, limbs in open air.The wide eyes, though, the tremors the honesty of experience-- the touch, the denial, the affirmation, the embracing of this pain I inspired, the reluctant abandon you must now enact to secure me, the gaze and words you beg of me while still inviting me to dance away from you in a fit of fear-- was flint to strike to spark, what lit me up in the dark for you to see, what breathed life into those dreams I had long since put to sleep.

You set my abandoned city ablaze, a thousand stars screaming out of a sea of dark, and apart from you I run on generators you've fashioned with your forging hands, That across my skin are enough to mold metal, and you do-- trace each freckle, settle down these roots and allow me to bloom, a thorny vine with the most fragile of petals. Despite the rising and dying of my embers, you pedal my motors to life and continue to traverse my terrain, chipping away at the quartz and crystal below, what I do not want to show but will save for you, when we are alone and hidden from view.This is my gift to you, all my facets:My abiding diamondMy quirky peridotMy dreamy opalMy burning rubyMy most precious sapphireIt is difficult to measure love, but perhaps we could try— by the height of this new fire, the degree of heat needed in order to melt into you, by the length of this thread that we pull and unravel, the rope tethering you to my peaks, or by the time it takesto polish these stones clear-- We can contend and postulate whatever the stars may dictate and gauge the rate at which I can elate or sedate you, discuss my timeline and define my journey up to you, but until thentwist your wires right around meso that I may press myself against your pulse the pinch, the clasp, thread me through and drape myself around you and be with you always.