light/shadow

my skin drinks the blood-light of the sunrise,
this liberation from the tyrant night,
yet short-lived the celebrations remain -
for my dream, as all of beautiful dreams,
again with your warmth on crumpled sheets fades;
shattered thoughts race and crowd the waking mind.

what potion quenches the thirst of the mind?
am i mad to love one lost comes sunrise,
to know her face then at day know it fades?
am i not worthy to snare you from night?
madness it must be to love you in dreams,
madder maybe for these thoughts to remain.

yet quests for your ever veiled face remain.
i would know your scent, your touch, by my mind,
i'd know from the lifetimes we walked in dreams.
i've touched you in lands that know no sunrise,
as i've held you in all corners of night;
my witness is the moon that never fades.

whatever has the morning that it fades
the secret tales of moons till none remain?
what ancient war rages between the night
and the morning that claims my awake mind?
the answers still evade me this sunrise,
dawn must laugh as i mourn the death of dreams.

will a tryst outside the borders of dreams
be made before sun into the west fades?
will such defy the curses of sunrise
and with me by morning you will remain?
forgive these day-woven dreams of the mind,
perhaps too desperate i grow for night.

but know that i can't be denied the night.
i rave mad by day but i dream the dreams
of you, of moon in places of the mind.
and whatever love comes the morning fades,
is made stronger where stars reign and remain.
even if it veils your face by sunrise.

know that my mind speaks true until all fades:
on sheets where dreams are lost, you will remain
a face by night, and by day the sunrise.

2004.feb.16

*sestina 2 of 2