519 and 520

No fuel can send my vessel forward long.

No wind can catch my sail, nor rigging touch,

no horse can coach my carriage far along,

no food can carve me from my hunger’s clutch.

For if you are behind me, all our years

inside my heart are on the road with me.

My ship’s not filled with ocean, but with tears.

My carriage horse drags weight he cannot see.

Not only do I leave you there, behind,

and seek you even as these miles track,

but so strong is your visage on my mind,

the very wind and horses would turn back.

These wheels move only at the frown of Fate,

who scoffs as I pass by her garden gate.

~~~

You opened up your chest to me and said

that I should take a look and take what’s mine;

but every pulsing thing in there was dead,

and so I quietly had to decline.

So far removed you’ve been. I cannot tell

if blood or vanity quickens the veins

that now you offer me. Do they wish well,

or wish, again, to bind me in their reins?

You’ve done so once before, as you well know.

Or do you? When you offered me a look

into that same cage where your breath would go

if it was breath, not bonds, that your lungs took.

I’ll not again be bound by taking part

in toasting one who drinks guilt in their heart.