After Midnight

I need you awake

more than you know

more than the salt

melts the snow

more than the gas

in the tank overflows

I need you to know

there’s bits of me lying about

I need you to stem

a bloodless cascade

when did these hands

cradle such doubt

I need you to sort

the mysterious out

I need you to help

the best of me trying to fade

I need you unharmed

ready to love

I need you to be

the field that we’ve farmed

become my Imam

my pastor my shepherd

I want to be your beloved

what you have never heard of

until there was Paris

until there was us

until nothing scared us

until we refused

until there were marvelous

cracks in between

I wanted your gentle

I wanted your mean

I need you awake

in our ongoing dream

when we slay dragons

when we crawl beneath

what scares us what tears us

the impenetrable seam

in canyons ageless

I love you, unseen.