blood

all my life

i have bled

in black

i have watched it circle

the orbit of my eye

and flit across

my hollow cheeks

like a shadow.

i have lapped its shallow pools

with the tip of my tongue

and gulped its morbid ink oceans

to trap breath

that struggled to depart

to remain in my soul.

my blood has coursed with madness

sin/pain/aching longing

to be sustained

by a force outside its flesh

for it bleeds

for the marble angels

that gather in the graveyards

at noon.

all my life i have

bled in black

but your blood has

pierced my veins

and flushed my face

with crimson red

and now the even the shadows

do not scare me.

your blood runs through mine