today i hope for tomorrows breath,
once I resurface after swimming
from my dreams to yours,
breathing through your lungs,
stealing memories, ones
I could never own.

[this was a free write in gotpoetry.com's tag-team-poem project , the first line isn't mine, its from hotstuff]

Let me kiss the earth of your hand
and plant my scent on trembling lands
numb with flashing hunger for thumbs
to circle my nipples, for palms
to carry my breasts like they were
vessels for cupping memory
while waiting for the sighs of rain

Tonight I wonder if there
are stars out there
behind a gloomy sky
that stretches toward me
like the distant wail of
a street child seeking
warmth from the night air.

I wait patiently for you,
for your smile to break
through the clouds like
sunbeams streaking
through my skin,
taking away the
chill in my bones.

But for now, I close my eyes,
imagining yours that sparkle
much more than any star,
lighting up at the thought
of me while you cover yourself
with this blanket of words
I am sending you.

I am a nomad–
running barefoot
on cracked earth,
chased by shadows within shadows
blood seeping across the sky,
harbinger of midnights winds
holding frozen knives at my throat.

You are a tree–
your branches vessels
cupping dreams of me
cradled in your shade,
my final resting place
where I can collapse at your feet,
slowly dying

to be planted by your side.

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Rax notes:

this was originally entitled Shade of my Heart,
and was inspired by Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series-
specifically the Aiel people and how they consider death
more of a lover or a friend than a feared enemy.

your fingertips tracing my lips
let you know that i was real. we were

embracing under the blankets. i was
pressing my body close to you and
breathing in your scent of sweat and perfume,
reminding me of the feel of your arms
when we first danced, reminding me of the trip to Ilocos,
rolling on cement floors until daylight had
seeped through the curtains, reminding me of
sleeping in Kuya Dado’s jeep with the windows down
shivering, forsaking clocks and later calendars. as the

morning dawned, i knew the city below pulsed
with madness and malice. i knew
i might lose you to meaningless faces of
strangers and false friends. i knew
there may be nights of sleeping alone
without your warmth, without your lips.
someday there may be a wedding, maybe
a child or two. there may be screaming
fights over money and other women, maybe
over in-laws. maybe you’ll stop whispering
my name in the dark and someday i might
cease to be real to you. i was

drawing the curtains so the light
didn’t wake you. i was lying down
embracing you under the blankets,
ignoring the phone ringing in the living room,
cherishing the languor of hips and
fingertips tracing my lips, i was

real to you.

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