Good pillow
Keeper of wishes
Kisser of dreams
Wicker of wetness
Tear sponge
Writing prop
Sore muscle press.
You accept what’s ugly,
You bolster what’s weak.
You hold the disconsolate.
Selfless friend
You give fully,
Never ask.
You take kicks
Soften blows
Cushion bones
Swallow screams.
You are always there
Ready for another round
Padding the worst of what we are,
Filling in our spaces,
Supporting both
Our helpless loves
And brave imagines.
Sweet wood child
Faery of running sap and cattail wisps
Imperceptible
To the coarser senses
Sing to me, elemental imp
Tickle my ears
With your light lays
Weave a spell of woodcraft
Quicken the arbor above
Caress my languishing spirit
In green delight.
Your melody seizes my soul
Unveiling before me
Every sylvan splendor.
You who have always been there
My first and last loves.
You have seen what I have seen
Struggled what I have struggled
Felt my pain, lost my loss.
You balance me.
Anything I can’t do, you take the task from me
And I will do the same for you.
You see the future I see
Before and behind us are parallel paths
With enough deviations
To give us something to talk about.
And we talk. And talk.
I could spend days locked with you in a small room
And come out smiling.
We share humor. We share darkness.
We oppose one another
Only when we feel the other needs correcting
We lovingly correct one another
Delivering the hard truths.
When you’re here, I am the most myself
When you’re gone, I am writ lowercase.
You fill in the gaps.
Without you,
I am halved.
Flayed to the bone
Skeleton exposed, oxidizing
I am Cain
Slain
At my wake by mistake
Whetting my weapon upon the table
Unstable
I try to stand tall
I stumble I fall
I go through it all
And you all
Watch me fall
With glass eyes negligent eyes eyes like microchips eyes like calculations
Reduced to a sideshow
I tumble, fumble, mumble
My skeleton exposed
The things they think they know
They try to describe
Right in my face but who are they
Someone gave me steel file joints
A cruelly placed arthritis
Hobbles me
I stagger to the door
I try the lock
Locked
Locked
I think I might be here forever
Forever under scrutiny
In this living autopsy
She was drunk, struggling to articulate
Lengthy pauses before each sentence
Halting, frustrated speech.
I’ve seen this before
She fights to be conscious, despite the sleeping pill
Her mind heavy
Her body stubborn
Her tongue a lead weight.
I’ve seen this before
She is deep in the throes of neurological degeneration
Lips uncooperative
Forcing thoughts through the thick walls
Of her solid-shrunk brain.
All of them demanding to be heard,
To be understood
Willing their selves past mental barriers
Deliberately balancing simple words
Like a child stacks blocks
With their fullest effort.
Sarah D. Silvey 