Neither/Nor: What Keeps You Here

Neither/Nor: What Keeps You Here

Neither burn
               nor quench
Neither fire
               nor flame
Neither me
               nor you
Can escape the reality
Of what time and death
                fears to do 

. . . the stray bird flew . . .

Neither by force
                nor fade
Neither servant
                nor slave
Neither turn
               nor veer
Neither ledge
               nor floor
Neither void
               nor door
Not century
               nor disease
Neither rat
               nor fleas
Not sumptuous 
               Disease
Nor bended knee
Can separate the
               eternal you
From the infinite me.
You are the drug that
Races to the brain –
I am the mortician’s 
                bloody drain.
You are the spoon,
I am the water.
You are the lamb,
I am the slaughter.
You are the black smoke:
My ultimate addiction,
You are my favorite 
Provincial affliction.
You are the pant
I am the breath.
You are the life,
I am transcending 
My hobbled little death.
Ni vire!
Neither 
             nor 
        leaves space
for that hangman’s
opening in the
                             earthly floor.
Not by force
                   nor fear,
Not by noose kept near.
Neither by oath 
                   nor compulsion
Nor by blackmail emotional
                   nor sick devotion - 
But by love’s sole desire to 
                   Protect
Every hair on your head
From what lays 
Stalking beyond both
The living and the dead. 


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