Without You

 Without You

Who would I be without you?

Me, but not this me,

not the one who has trudged

through this snow and this mud.

I would not be the self

that slogged his way through

the evolution of boy to man

and torn myself from the bracken water

to stand ankle deep

in the stagnant swamps 

of the American dream.

Without you, I might never

fly on the wings of a waltz

or float, buoyed in your eloquence.

You are my sustenance, 

my meat and my sated sweet tooth.

Without you, in my ravening

I would gnaw the bones of my own darkness

till they lay cracked and marrow-dry

and cast carelessly about

the cave where this dragon lies

curled protectively about his treasure,

guards it as fiercely as any mastiff would

the land and people it loves.

Without you, I would still be me,

but not this me, not the one

who quilts words and wraps them tight around you

when you shiver.

 

Copyright 2012 by m0rg4n