
Reach for me from sleep in the midst of a rosy birdsong dawn
to murmur soft sweet reasons to live in my ears
Memorize me, now, before I rise to take my place among the rabble
and a thousand indignities reduce me to rubble
To be rebuilt each day with the brick and mortar of your touch
My tender self thus hidden behind the stone façade
Of cauterized wounds and unfeeling scars—to survive, and
Reach for you from sleep in the midst of a rosy birdsong dawn