SLEEPING WITH A GHOST

KENDALL HELFER

I’m lying in bed,
All that is shameful envelops me

An unwilling specter has taken home in my lungs,
Piercing my skin,
Squeezing a bleeding heart,
All that is seedy and human - unveiled

I disgust myself
How can an apparition want something that is unfamiliar?
You risk fading that way.

Wanting isn’t the end of the world
Your lips linger over my face, bated breath.
I turn away,

Imagining I turn around,
Pinning you down,
As we become one,

Your breathy kisses turn ravenous,
I don’t know if that is what you want,
If this is what I need,
Who’s to say but the moon.

I lie still in the all-consuming mattress
I can no longer tell what are your worries,
and what are mine.

You glimmer in the moonlight.
The quiet songs within our lungs lull us to sleep,
Yet, I never want to take my eyes away,
Your hunger is mine.

I take refuge right besides your ribs,
You take sanctuary around my waist,
And for a millennium we lay still.