The Night

If words could bind you,

I would say whatever it took to make you stay.

Maybe then this poem would keep you.

Hold you hostage in the trenches of my selfish desire.

I would slip notes like stones into your pocket.

I would anchor you down in this moment, a riverbed of loneliness.

It kills the animal in me to see the silhouette of your body lit up against the light of dawn.

The moon is a snapping coyote that wants to steal you away from me.

But if I can keep it at bay,

If I can muzzle its snout,

If I can bear the burden of the night on my back, then maybe you’ll still be here when I wake up.

But darkness keeps pummeling my windows with its heavy fists.

Baby, I think we’re running out of time now.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling fast.

I cannot keep the night from coming in.

I can not keep the feeling my body has when I see your body and smell your skin, at bay.

I am weak.

Your presence is a calming bliss my body will not survive without.

I will become nothing, a shade of grey and lifeless.

I do not want your pity, but I do want your soul.

I am hungry for all that you hold.