you exhaust me

with your perpetual need

you who is I, I who is me

this hungering for solace

rubbed like frankincense

on pulse points

used to be said, a woman’s evocation

was found in the thread of her blood

tasting her, found, a salt and an admonishment

for knowing mystery is not permitted

you exhaust me

with your perpetual need

you who is I, I who is me

attempting free fall, finding balance in

tender pretend, the chime and rounding of days

a music without orchestra, still she sings

heal me from the want

expunge that holy desire for more

give me a reflecting glass

that I might climb through

touch my limbs as they break into fire sticks

combusting in torrent, the woman, the girl

the crone

she sits with sun on her face

careless of time

she has put aside her duty

listening instead

to the song of a bird

whose feathers remind her

of blue black hours

5 Replies to “blue black hours”

  1. Oh Candice! Desert Queen! I’m not sure how you write the words that could be found in my own heart so often. This is a clutching at the breast, a yearning, mixed with tears. Beautiful verse.

  2. Does age offer respite from the ambitions and self-criticism/doubt of youth? Or, does a black bird never depart the pallid bust of Pallas?

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