Take Thy Only Hand In Mine

But for thy kiss upon my lips
The touch of wind is thy caress
The things I miss - sensation, bliss
Replaced with ice around my heart

Tight coilsprings within my womb
That herald my impending doom
The spectre of my waiting tomb
Pierce shards of ice into my heart

Hands laced firm across my breast
As they go about their tests
A funeral - and I'm the honoured guest
Drive ice-cold fear into my heart

Shock and pain in glitt'ring eyes
Anguished need without disguise
Thy love remains despite the lies
And melts the coldness in my heart

News of our salvation taken
Leaves me crumbling and shaken
Thy will to save leaves me forsaken
Ice forms again around my heart

Without thy aid I live again
To feel the sun and walk in rain
Ov'r thy freedom I will reign
With ice contracting in my heart

Years of pain tear love asunder
Vengeance sears like rolling thunder
Its bitterness dragging me under
Molten tears flooding my heart

Footsteps fall on fallen foes
What future holds, none of us knows
Loneliness rains down like blows
Bittersweet grief within my heart

Thy only hand takes mine in thine
A single touch of hope - a sign
That love might once more live, divine
Bring warmth anew into my heart

It's for endurance that we strive
Thy love and mine keeps us alive
To love and thrive and to survive
Brings hope to birth within my heart

Author's Note: This one was very experimental for me, even though it sticks to pretty conventional poetic forms. Like most people, I wrote lots of poetry in my teens - some good, most bad - and haven't done a lot with poetry since. But a fragment came to me one day about a year ago - the first line, "But for thy kiss upon my lips" - and it stuck with me, so I wanted to let it out to play to see what it could do. I worked on this a few stanzas at a time over several months. That sounds very laborious and time-consuming, and of course it wasn't, but it was the sort of thing I felt was important to let sit for a while during the process. I had it on my hard drive for a while before deciding to post. I don't know if it will be many people's cup of tea, but I hope you got something out of it. Cheers!