Poetry Feature: “Gratify Me” by Grace Burks
February 25, 2020
Photograph by Julianna Souther
You tickled Me
with unequivocal candor
My heart fluttered
for Your echoing murmurs,
substantiating Our palpable adoration
one-thousand-miles no longer lingered
intimacy became entangled by distance
sanctioned by time
clocking by
lost but not pillaged
two pillars founded by one
the extension vaporized
nothing was bound
yet You kept prevailing
with effortless endurance
We clung to the sheets of ambiguity
vacant but inhabited
the paradox of asynchronous ardor
each holding tickets to Our quintessential beings
grasping, clutching, caressing
I yearned to surrender My crux
but lusted for a swooning whistle of breath
to expel from the pursed hum
beneath the bridge of Your nose
You built the bridge, with lucidity
You seized My core
and I gradually slid into Yours
until You wrestled the bridge from beneath Me
You flung My toes at the moon
You swept Your feelings away with My hair
You gnawed at My skin
the flesh ate Me outside in
until I was marooned
You took My gravity
with a sudden atrophy
You.
You.
shallow.
you.
shallow.
I have since found ground.
your shallow gravity gave Me leverage
unclasped, I grasped My own gravity.
you left with the piercing tremble of silence.
you left Me alone.
you left you alone.
Me
you
Me- I’m alone.
– I’m alone.
but I’m not lonely.
you abandoned Me.
but I embraced Me.
the silence clung to Me
I lingered in the sheets of isolation
with unequivocal candor
I gratified Me.