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Soul Wife

Have you too wrestled a great demon
And withstood its poisonous stare
Do you know its name
Could you draw the face
Have you hung from the edge of the abyss
Have you gripped the burning blade
And choked on the wind of lies
What has haunted the crevasse of your soul
What weapon does it carry
Would you show me the wound
Do you have the courage to let your eyes speak it
Thirst and nakedness and selflessness and faith
Have you been used and forgotten
Overlooked and abandoned
Neglected and sold into faceless pain
Has a spasm of bottomless pain encoiled your heart
Have the tentacles of hopelessness
Whipped out and after your limbs
Like a forest of scorpions' tails
Lusting for your blood
If so, then you know me
Then tell me of your journey
Sing to me your song
Sing in the language that only you and I know
And I will know it is you, love
A love so great to have bled for so long
Every gash, every blow
Each a diamond
Now a chest overflowing
Only this could buy one such as you
A soul torn before the idols of the fallen
Were you there every moment
Did you bleed when I bled
Did our screams echo together
Through another unseen dimension
A heaven where we have walked side by side
Since the first ray of hope
Flashed through the fingers of time
And did I ever hurt you
I care not if you hurt me
Just to know you breathe erases it
Let me find you
Call to me from this plateau
This table of smoke
Howl through the mist to me
See my cries tumble
Down the mountainside of solitude
To die in the sea of completedness
Where a great white plume will rise
Against the blue of unfathomable peace
So the holy wind
Can carry the spray to caress you
Know it then, love
That it  is my breath that lifts you
The kiss of God
Thrust forth from the place of my Missing Rib
Know that I have heard you
And I have run with all my strength
With a  heart desperate for your name
Know that I will reach for you
That's hell's breath and stench
Will not quell my hunger
For the silken incarnation of your skin
The taste of your lips
And the honey of your voice
Speaking my name


Stephen Pursell, 8/98














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