Unfaded and Unyielding upon the Walls

Do you know the place you own in my heart, the absolute sovereignty with which you rule from that throne of red and fiery heat;

The sway you hold over the subjects of all my blood and bones and upon the soft and curving edges of every one of my dreams?

There is no thought pressing up from that darkness that does not have its roots drinking long and deep from your well.

I don’t know how other men have loved but this at least I give you, freely and with both hands, the deed of my heart.

I have few of the things the world accounts as treasures but I have this humble love that I place in your hands each day.

I give you this bare and naked heart each morning with every look of my eyes, every soft and gentle touch, every word.

My wildness and passion, my dreams are all yours forever; every work of my heart and hands belongs to you.

In the way the birds belong to the air and the fish belong to the sea, this is the way that I belong to you and you to me.

For I find you written there in the deep places of my heart, your name in the foundation stones of the house of my spirit,

Carved deep into every one. I find your memories grown into the timbers and framework of all my body

As the memories of one who has lived in a place a long time, unfaded and unyielding upon the walls.

I have this music of your voice in my ears like the wind that whispers in the trees and through my open windows;

The notes of the melody of your song marked beneath my skin in the ink of my blood, harmonizing throughout all of my flesh.

I have but to reach out to you in the embrace of my thoughts to touch you there, to feel your warmth against my palms.

I have but to look with my eyes to see that I belong to you more deeply that I have ever belonged to myself;

And with eyes open or closed I read this truth upon every stone of the earth, every blade of grass, every breath of heaven stirring waters deep.

None of it has meaning or purpose or beauty that does not lead me to you, surer than any compass or shining star.

The universe written as a map that leads me unfailingly to your heart and hands, your soft lips and deep eyes.

If there are gods or some grand spirit of eternal divine than it was meant to be found in the lens of this love

That flows between us as oceans, storming and foaming, rolling in great waves, pulling with the strength of tides.

For everything sacred and holy I have found living in the steep valleys of your flesh, enshrined upon the sloping peaks of your breasts

And we two have touched them there together, if only upon the edges of our shaking limbs and pounding hearts;

And felt the press of something perfect and pure, something still and soft and right buried there between us.

So I tell you more and more and yet again, that you may know and hold it forever in the vault of your heart; I belong to you and you to me.

Eric M. Petit