O Beloved

Oh, beloved, I'm going to speak to you now

As if we understood each other somehow

As if the fire you wear as your crown

Wasn't my very own house burning down

Oh, beloved, I'll speak now as if you were time

And I was the tree you crawled like a vine

Waving my arms to ward off the crows

Beloved, I don't want to know all you know

Beloved, our bedclothes are roiled by the tide

That drags us below and then up to the side

Buckled and winded and throbbed to the deep

Beloved, don't make a promise you don't plan to keep

Beloved, I see faces in cupboards and walls

Knocking like horses awake in their stalls

Their eyes rolling back, electric and wide

Beloved, I was only just finding my stride

Beloved, December has turned into May

And all of our years come down to today

Beloved, your world is much stranger than we

Had ever imagined each other to be

Beloved, we've left very little unsaid

And nothing unsung here over the dead

Whose vanishing rites enlivens the blue

Beloved, I hide from and I'm running to you