Fore-Shadows

I breathe you.

I becalm you out of me.

I numb you in the reach

of brethren light.

I suckle you

to the dregs of disaster.

The sky pins a vagrant star

on my chest. I see the wind

as witness,  the towering night

that lapsed

in a maze of oaks,

the distance.

I haunt you

to the brink of sorrow.

I milk you of strength.

I defy you,

I deify you

to nothing and

to no one,

I become

your necessary and most violent

heir.