Sleepless I Wandered
written by: John Ryder
My heart too faint was for youth’s dizzy flood,
Gushing my veins in a glance deep as hell,
The scent of your wrist, the heat of your blood
In you I sensed but feared my sin to tell.
So sleepless I wandered the halls of my soul,
Beneath the shirt of my thin growing birth,
Through bramble, and briar, and woods dark and cool
In search of your eyes, my arms glowing hearth.
Through the light of dream, the night’s yellow orb,
The pulse of your heart my hungry hand found,
Halfway home, we stopped, the time to absorb
The beat of our bonfire, tremulous sound.
And your lips, there love, speechless for breath,
Met mine own wet and pale as patient death.
John Ryder currently resides in Illinois with his extremely patient and long-suffering wife and muse of 35 years.
Latest posts by John Ryder (see all)
- Sleepless I Wandered - July 7, 2020
- October Leaving - November 13, 2019
