JAMES

my first thought hummed through a silver thread

yesterday i walked with feet of fragile flesh

its eyelash hides the sun

i am dust floundering in its waves

like me, it cannot sleep

like me, it never wakes

together we hunger

in occultation

life-wearied, death-defied

our dreams crash

reborn as waves

as mountains on the sea

our oblivion, long-due

hidden mid snowfall from dusk until dawn

twilight asleep in the song of the sinner

and wider and wider the frigid nights yawn

young shrike of the morning bristles and shivers

scenting a trail of felled kings long dead

the hunter nearby nocks draws and quivers

downwind a loosed arrow falls short of its stead

dire warnings, young omen; so did cold trees whisper

and my feathered friend was no one's warmth

so said the hunter - another night i wonder

for maybe we'll find her alone at the hearth

i welcome it into my dreams for a slumber

we chase the cold away, but the moon clawed on

it whined through my throat, i let myself lax in her

so tender she beckoned that oath from my maw

the oldest of thieves is known by all who deign enter

the heart of the woods is no heart at all

but a casket for the laity fool enough to wander