steady this drum
on the pulse of your mercies
and steal my last breath
from the breeze
strain to the sound
of poetry pleading
to moments all measured
by these

know me
to know me
closer to close
softer the name you recite
as learning to breathe
with somebody else
adrift in your essence
tonight

break from the empty
fill now the warmth
of sunlight to corners
long bare
throw off the covers
and run through the shadows
~ I’ll be your memory
I swear

save for indifference
the doings undone
and worry
for places to be
slow to the rhythm
of night birds returning
o’er oceans
remembered
as me