Exempt

I am exempt from you,
disillusioned along the lines of your skin
as we trace, fumble together
in the dark, a silver shadow
stretched thinly over the body of the couch.
You speak in rhythm
the roll of my name sliding down your tongue
as you attempt to squeeze me down
between the bite of your lips,
envisioned in the fantasy in which
I never leave.
But in the brief light of the dawn
that shutters through the crack between the curtains,
there's not enough warmth to hide
the empty presence of my body
locked in the fading arc
of your arms.

Conflagration

You ask me for a lover,

burned, charred and ransacked

upon my grave,

leaning back against 

the tombstone,

cigarette crushed between your lips

as I watch you smile

in the grimace of a flame

and I know
how badly I need to feel
your burning mouth against mine.
Because with every slight stretch

and unadorned movement of your body

I can feel the ashes piling higher

around me

in the clichéd form of desire

until I’m surrounded

by the fires of my own making,

heart slicing through the embers

as they claw and softly singe

my skin rubbed raw

from the blazing pressure

of loving

you.