Love Pillars

This piece is part of the Cleave Chain collaboration on Chalkboard.

Photo credit, my own

With my own two feet, withered, yet dreaming

Can my skin stand still, patiently singing

Longing crawls through my bones, remains clinging

That which I can not understand, screaming

To banish demons, irreparable.

Fingers calm, soften folds that held you near,

Reminds spirit, tender promises sear —

With parched roots cleave the inseparable

Trembling through red shudders, closed to the storm

All that matters now — my goal, your compass

Lines glasses freely on broken stems — scorn

Base fates drink of we, curses encompass

Lightning crackles, swallows up bridges, worn

Pillars holding all love’s pure name knew, of us.

A sonnet written as a cleave to Sonnet VI by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.