7.29.2023 - Out of Phase

7.29.2023
Out of Phase

My chest lies empty,
No beat below my breast.
My barren lungs stilled.
Eyes glassy at the ceiling,
Until the whisper of my lips,
A delicate darting of my tongue,
Chilled breath lapping at my nose.
My eyes burn with heat,
But no tears glide upon pale cheeks.
|I long to be a person.
To feel sunlight in my hair,
To laugh or scream.
Trace my figure with your thumbs,
Probe the edges of my flattening,
The quiet lack of being.
The quavering void where my heart was,
Hollow and calm I lay,
Waiting for the sword to fall,
Perhaps the sun to rise,
Or the next spoke on the wheel.
That tired mechanism steady,
Metronome bearing me away,
Tide receding and dry riverbed.
Lost in discrete fluctuations,
I hold my breath,
And remain untouched.
Despair too grand.
Peace inapplicable.
Frayed and frozen.