Souterrain Prière: Underground Prayer

My heart bleeds invisibly under you,

a faint stain which discolors your perfection.

A redness trickling like wine, a tangled view

which has lasted through years of dead passion.

The earth here is richer, nurtured by friendship…

a brotherhood that offers this sweet shield.

But beneath green grass, the dirt’s strange kinship

to a dark basement has been revealed.

Stars glitter above in a moonlight sky,

the night deep with the black of Heavens sweet…

beneath, the soil is heavy where I lie,

asleep where our dreams and sacred thoughts meet.

My fingers are crumbling with clay and dust,

my eyes closed with the weight of blackened gold…

my lips are silent, with no want to trust

the sweet spells and the words that came of old…

I lie in sleep, bound by thine ancient ties…

below, where no breeze croons through silver trees,

where no stars will shine and no moon will rise,

in the deep dark, praying on broken knees.