Mortal Prison
by Dustin Pickering



I know You and memorize your contours
like a cartographer who cannot see.
The mind, pulsing and thickening its reach,
teaches the heart a faith in Time.

Something opened my ear, and I heard
melodies taunting passion.

I have felt the encroaching enemy,
our jailer who wrote our vows,
I have felt his insistence.

I am dreaming sorrowfully. I don’t trust
the embrace of failure.
My strength is softer than airy feathers.

And Sasha, my kisses reach to You in darkness.
The light kindly withdraws from our embrace.
Drowned like a victim in tide’s tow,
I look back and despair is the star guiding.

Your eyes speak a language divine.
Some have told me to hold back my affection.
I will at your request.
My passion swells in contempt of its mortal prison.





Illya's Honey Literary Journal

Copyright © by Dallas Poets Community. First Rights Reserved. All other rights revert to the authors.