Dark Bird

Loneliness is a curious bedfellow

crawling between blankets

when the night is pale

his cold edges

encircling

how I have shivered

at this touch.

But today I turned

to offer my hand

and asked what he had to teach me.

I let him carry me to my knees.

In the moonlight

he grew slim

and stood before me as a mirror

his void reflected back

this wide-eyed gaze

this warm skin

the film of breath upon the glass

alive with longing

Slowly he became a bird

of darkness

hovering above my hands

I kissed it softly

cradling it like a beloved child

my lips on cold feathers

gloriously alive

I have not yet been claimed by death.

It spread its wings before me

until they became a

dark doorway into the

house of joy.