| she lay beside him, afterwards, breathing deeply through the fire in her blood that raged on unabated. she lay beside him, as he dreamed, burning sacred visions on the altar of tonight and prayed that one time he would really touch her like he understood the paradise that opened, arched and heaved beneath his child-god hands. oftentimes she knew his dreams were full of conflict, fear and the complex replays of a toxic mind. oftentimes she felt unable to revive the paradise that he had lost and she ached with the promise she had made to protect him so that he might dream of touching her at last |
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| *art: susan boulet |