Dearest I Feel Certain

[conqueror49worm]

A canoe at the livery
rusted through, and you're shivering.
Here's where I gutted you, and you'd forgiven me
in a dream.
Staring daggers from the stern,
their king's ashes in an urn.
I'm always wearing badges I didn't earn.

Take an oar, take an oath.
If the Huron should take us both,
let it be a justified delivery.
Open up, open up, let the river in.

Who knew I'd be wasted young.
The grooves of desperation
scratched in drawers that won't shut
to match the scores and scars and our cuts.
Out on the water,
out on the water.
Shed this skin, baby, scale it back again.

Pocket full of rocks.
The dock is far.
The waves are close enough
to fear.
Ink dries too fast and the
blood too slow.
I hear voices even in the garden.