2.  I WOULD LIKE TO ENTER YOUR SLEEP

Go. Run. Don’t look back. Scream as you go.

Point at me. Shut the door. Lock it behind you.

And prop a chair under the knob.

Leave me. Forget me. Hate me.

Be another’s.

I would, if I could, let you.

I would let you rob me. Skin me. Alive. Stab me.

Laugh at me.

Stone me.

Hurt me.

Hurt me, as badly as you wish you could.

I would pray for you to be able to do it.

I would

Bargain the marrow of the marrow of my bone

Give alms to kings

Crosses to saints

Soul to sinners

Life to corpses

Smiles to grief

And self to ghosts.

For you,

For you in the end,

For you in the end to leave me.

But I would like to keep one thing,

I would like to enter your sleep,

The soft pollen of your thoughts as it drifts into dreams.

I would tread lightly, love, you would never know.

I wouldn’t enter the dream

Exactly so.

I would only guard the gate from the likes of me.

But I would like to enter your sleep,

The salty taste of your spirit as it morphs into soul. Into heart. Into the blood that keeps you alive.

And entering then, I would kneel

Right at the edge of your dream

And watch you,

Breathe you, love you, live you,

Live you, instead of me.

By the time your endless eyes open,

I would be gone,

And if you blink once or twice and frown. What was that? if you ask,

I would live one last time,

And leave life, my love, beatified.

© 2013 Ani Keating