On the Edge of Us

Edward Swafford & Jozef Cain

EDWARD’S READING:

JOZEF’S READING:

Image by Ph Dul.

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We waste away, waiting in want
 writing weathered words
  whether or not
   we wither, it's the desire we desired;
    the bittersweet liminality of the fire

           And the longing is just, who heralds sirens
         when we're love deaf to desideratum drums
        only just when they must
       kiss the backs of our fecund faces (pucker up)
      lip locked, we never shy, nor kneel

Standing on rock and soil, transcendent
balancing on level plane, of aetheric iridescence;
                          an act of ebb and flow
                          as above, so below
where our uniform is change, and our aesthetic
is rough around the edges

           Serrated edges like scissored slakes
          cutting, deepening salt and self
         it's so quiet beneath the blue
        swelling epochs, swells of you and I
       horizons are our coup de grâce from
      a dissonant distance

     The way the wind blows from sea to sky,
      falling back onto land from the ocean tide;
       the sound it makes is beautifully din,
        as we surface to hear the call
         of Eros and Eris, in tandem,
          harmonized for a moment in time

Those twin fables SUCK on my forbidden fruit
SliP-sLiDiNg bEtWiXt AlTaRs 
cupped by outcast pariahs "humming"
my familiar tune; it's music, it's art
until the afterword reveals a rue revelation
I'm nothing 
if not 
never 
with you

© Edward Swafford & Jozef Cain 2025

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Image by Werner Schäfer.

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