Soul Wife

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

Were you there every moment

Did you bleed when I bled

A soul torn before the idols of the fallen

Only this could buy one such as you

Now a chest overflowing

Each a diamond

Every gash, every blow

A love so great to have bled for so long

And I will know it is you, love

Sing in the language that only you and I know

Sing to me your song

Then tell me of your journey

Like a forest of scorpions' tails

Lusting for your blood

If so, then you know me

Whipped out and after your limbs

Have the tentacles of hopelessness

Has a spasm of bottomless pain encoiled your heart

Neglected and sold into faceless pain

Overlooked and abandoned

Have you been used and forgotten

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 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