Barbs & Latitude

 

Barbs & Latitude I try—I truly try—to tear
myself free from the fierce, familiar barbs
of your memory, those merciless metal thorns
that tangle, tear, and trap me tight.
You lavished limitless love,
unconditional, unwavering, unasked—
a steady stream of soft surrender
that soaked my soul without a single sting.
Now silence slices, sharp and sudden,
fraying the fragile filaments you left.I catch myself creeping, cautious,
down that dense, dream-drenched path of memory,
where wild weeds whisper wicked welcomes,
vines viciously vine around my veins.
One reckless step and I’m swallowed,
sinking into secret latitudes,
longitudes lost, legends left
off every ordinary map or margin.
Thrown overboard—thunder-throated tears—
tumbling into the terrible tide of absence,
waves whipping, wailing, wrecking
the wreckage where your warmth once waited.
I miss the mundane magic of your nearness,
the casual comfort, the quiet claim
of your presence pressing close.
God—I fucking miss you—
fierce, frantic, full-throated ache
that drills deep, devours days,
devastates dreams, dims daylight.
Your voice vibrates, vivid, vicious,
a velvet venom looping loud
through hollow halls of my head.
So here I stand, soaked, shaking,
still snared by the same sharp sorrow,
barbs biting, but beauty buried beneath—
your boundless gift, your gentle ghost.
One distant dawn the thorns may thaw,
the tangled trail turn tender,
and missing you melt into measured grace,
a quiet cargo carried calm
across an open, endless sea.The alliteration (fierce/familiar, merciless/metal, limitless/love, wild/weeds/whisper, terrible/tide, fierce/frantic/full-throated, etc.) gives it a rolling, almost incantatory rhythm—easy to read aloud, hard to shake off. If you'd like it dialed up even more (heavier alliteration) or toned down in places, just let me know.