words

i have come to know well
the metallic undressing of her hands
as a signal for whats to come–
ring after ring,
then watch and bracelet
until her bare wrists and fingers
collide with mine.

a soft neon blue twilight
shifts our focus on one another
and we glide between the sheets,
the medium of words
replaced by language of an ancient source,
the curtains of her eyes
pulled half-to,
her lips parted slightly to reveal
the slightest glimmer of teeth,
the sight of which
causes my eyelids to stutter.

and at the dawn of our hour,
as the sun begins its plague anew
she is gone,
and i am still here
alone,
my breath quick and shallow,
unsure if she is real
or a product of madness,
the answer, however, does not concern me
as sure as the question does.

i lose her behind the veil
of my strange fixation with the night
and i find suddenly that sleep
will not come as easy
or for as long
as before
and my subconscious threatens to take over
and fix my reality with dreams in technicolor,
films without meaning or direction,
the camera rolling without pause
or cuts,
just the strange observations of everything
that amount to little more than fear of myself
and it would be nice if when she left
she took my anxiety with her.

-S.C. Martinez