Faded Like Prayers

 Built it on bones 

The altar of us 

Hollow, holy 

Sacred, secret 

Your breath an incense 

Rising through my cracked ribs 

You were no god 

But I knelt anyway 

Mouth full of ache and ash 

Love, you said, 

Is devotion in flames 

Your body trembled 

With gospel and guilt 

Fingertips tracing words of love on my spine 

Each vertebrae a vow 

You never meant to keep 

We worshipped in motel rooms 

Under buzzing neon lights 

Sanctified lust among the muck 

Smoke rising 

Our words cracked by thunder 

I sang hymns in moans 

Unanswered, unbeautiful 

As purple lightning lit up our sky 

Rain to wash it all clean 

There were moments of miracles 

Your smile in the morning light 

A crescent moon on your collarbone in the glow of the dark

But even miracles don’t matter 

When worship turns to war 

I extinguished the altar we lit 

To find my way again in the dark 

My wrists still aglow 

Where you held them on the bed 

Our love was a false god 

Faded like prayers 

But oh how divine the fire 

I still covet sometimes