Your flesh saved my soul.

A poem about spirituality and physicality.

I.

in those long violent days 
of summer,

my soul sat slumped 
like a corpse
frozen with grief,

but my body
came alive for you

II.

it was the first week of june
when he told his mother
not to worry,

when he told his mother
he was only stepping out
to buy a pack of cigarettes,

when he climbed to the top
of their apartment building,
looked down,
and saw the fall
would not kill him,

when he leapt 
headfirst
to silence the demons
howling in his mind,

when he scattered them
into mine

III.

and i imagine
the angels quieted,

as they watched 
his gorgeous form
floating through the air

and then wept
as his face kissed 
the ground

IV.

that’s how she found him,

she opened the windows 
the following morning
to let in the breeze,

and there he was

V.

i boarded a red-eye
the night i got the news,

and flew to los angeles
to pass the time
with you

VI.

when i landed,
we warred in a parked car
atop a steep hill in silver lake,

stopping only
when a coyote appeared
before us

VII.

you had been hurt
so many times before

and i did not know then
what i do know now

that you had nothing
left to risk

but we were young
and our hunger
for one another's flesh
was enough 
to sustain us

VIII.

and god knows 
we could be gentle

if not with our words,
with our physicality

IX.

the morning after,
asleep in a cabin

silence

surrounded by
a cathedral
of stained glass
windows

sunlight, 
filtering through,
painting your skin

black to gold, 
gold to violet,
and black again

X.

i grab you by your ankles,
drag you slowly
to the foot of the bed,
kneel down
and pray

your flesh saved my soul.

---

By Cole Schafer