Writer Between Worlds

with our bodies we prayed 
in their mutual giving,
and our souls we laid
bare in hope-laden heaving – 
     our hearts, back then, 
     a warm, welcome den,
     irresistible to each other, 
     like water, like fodder,
     our chests throbbing magnets
     with manifold facets,
     now trifling clocks
     counting down the roadblocks
     to fame and to glory,
     our glamour is gory
     counting paychecks and bills, 
     while loneliness kills
     maims our three-dimensional faces
     in incessant rat races,
     they turn flat on a screen
     where tags say what we mean
when we were in love, 
people,
we weren’t emotional 
cripples
     when we were lovers,
     sisters, brothers,
     we meant more to each other
     than limbs, tongues, vaginas and lists
     of demands.
     we received
     the sunrise along with the mists
     we were such willing alchemists
     we stayed for the sunsets
     endured wailing and forfeits,
our voices, back then, 
not used just to scoff
our hands, back then, 
not made to fend off
     other hands in the field;
     it was not about yields
     and if we did put up shields
     they were still shield volcanoes
     that cooled in the ocean
     setting islands in motion,
     our beings a single 
     ridge deep below,
     our lava’s flow
     adding land to inhabit and grow,
     land firm enough to walk on
     in the darkest of night, before dawn,
     land lush with life and spawn,
     land aglow
     land against
     death’s chilling undertow.