pausing to sweep your hands through the airy clouds;
golden fog,
spiraling around your body in huge, magnificent whorls...
indulge in the fantasy,
taste it on your tongue
in deep, saturated colors;
saccharine.

do you find paradise
in the velvet folds wedged in barbed wire?
the ambivalence tucked deep within the veins of time,
carrying poignant ichor
and filtering it through the water of the peaceful?

to chase
and abandon yourself
in an irresolute haze,
is to find undeserved freedom
in the false forgiveness
of fantasy.

her presence is a living contradiction,
bittersweet incarnate.
yet rapture paints your days with her
an emblazoned, gilded bronze.