Dead Language Poem by Karen Thornburg

You speak a dead language
Pronouncing every word perfectly
Coloring my skin in hues of forgotten desires
My hearts cypher
You articulate flawlessly.

That moment of metanoia
The titanium bars and steel plates
Protectors of my shattered heart
Effortlessly melt like magma
With just one kiss

Melting this fireproof wall
You evoke what had secretly roamed dormant
Stirring an unknown fire within me
Fear of getting burned
renouncing defeat to passions call
Because you are the fire within fire.

Liquid emotion slipping from my eyes
My brain claws for control…
For survival
As you whisper in unheard-of melodies
Dragging my heart through ethereal dreams.
Until you climbed into the universe of my soul
I knew only years of ugliness

What I had believed was myth
I never knew could be reality
Until you spoke my dead language
I never believed love was real.


Karen Thornburg