the condemnations we endure.

And once again: once again:

The smell of your skin drugs me like nothing else can: fierce and proud and unyielding and smooth like the headiest wine: like time.

And this cruel gentleness will make me and break me and make me again: this way you touch me: this way you look: this way we choose to be what we are:

And this utter lack of distance is dissatisfactory: I need: I want: I die: I give myself away to the bone: my blood runs like water in the night:

And you are achingly, hauntingly beautiful in this dark: so beautiful my heart breaks over and over and over: until there is nothing left:

Nothing but our shattered humanity: shared and taken and broken in kind: the empty fire that consumes.

And if this is how it is then I will go on: forestall: predict: love: hate: break you and complete you like a painting on canvas: like a promise: like the sky we will one day see.