We wake before the dawn,
but sleep is elusive,
so we play the game of breaths.
Earning our repentance.

Your breaths, ragged.
As if I’ve torn you apart,
broken like bread.

My breaths poured out, rise feline.
Resurrected from this petit mort.
Take all my lives.

The sheets now baptized,
we undress and dress the altar.

In the morning, I found out
there would be no eternity.
And you told me
you always knew.

If we can’t live forever,
show me all the ways to die.