you said this free-falling feeling
is what it felt like to be lost in the world
and I had always been afraid of heights,
but it had seemed simpler in your eyes;

laying at your feet
I will raise you up like the Sistine
a prime lover, a beautiful misnomer
you never asked for it
but you brought me back to life,
so does that make you the necromancer
to my tired soul?

careening into the chasm of nothing
effervescent lights
imbued with the screams of the damned
and I cannot find my way out of this maze
I’m too old to catch feelings
but this was like a flag in the wind

white flag, catch me –

I took the mantle you left behind
it was all I can see,
once I wrote for myself
but I always try harder when it’s for someone else
there is no exception, untold law

drag the breath from my rib cage
and I will paint it gold
a lullaby to be portrayed later,
an award here, a kind word there
oblivious to the fine print
‘see me’