Gift

The best place 
Where things are to be found
Is where people sleep 
Squeals Alice
Licking her lips 
And tightening the buckles on her shoes
She has a plan
I can tell
She tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear
Push together the holes in your skin
She states
As if it’s normal
Any of this
The splinters are yesterday’s battle
Stored suspended sustained in flesh

We did not touch the apple
Not for a whole year
Curiously the poison grew stronger inside
We dreamt of it
Fondly as a summer house
One in the country
Where the sun shines through
Every aspect
And tries to embrace us
Like a mummy and a daddy
Though we still shiver inside

I don't understand why I'm awake
To peel pretty letters off your skin
Like writing a letter home
One that will never be sent
My insides juggle the poison
Facilitate blood air breath
For a while it is right
Then I hear her

Who said you are breathing
Who said this was real
You are wrapped up 
On the white bed
Where the sky came alive
Where I rescued you from love
And feeling
You need never open your eyes
All is done
All is passed

Will you come with me
To the bottom of time
Where all is dark
And soft like ashes
Will you come with me
And keep the dust from my head

She looks me in the eye
Of course not silly  
You can only go alone

I realise why she came
What gift she brings
She is the antidote
And the poison
Sweet like an apple
But rotten inside.