Arve Henriksen Follow

Morning, you lay sleeping
Your small body clinging tightly to mine
With frightening dependency
Life defining, impossible to betray

And with that...
The mattress rose
Set adrift on the burgeoning emotional tide
Colliding with the once stationary objects
Of an uninhabited life

What had been concealed
Was exhaled from god knows where
Colour-drained, unsalvageable
Shape shifting
And, with function relinquished
Resigned from service

Nudged against one another
Bearing the once warm imprint of our bodies

The sun-baked stone garden
Retracted its promise
It was cold in that place of perpetual summer

If you were afraid you didn't show it
You who were born bearing the face
Of irrepressible grief

So as not to disappoint you
I lay motionless
Rapt by the rise and stall of your breathing
Your fingertips and thighs
Quietly affirming my place at your side.

Morning, you lay sleeping
Your small body clinging tightly to mine
With frightening dependency