Far as near things are when sleep
Blows over you like blackened sand,
Is the hot pain you thought to keep
Warm against your hand.

Grief left you colorless as stone.
You lie beneath night's splintering wave
That once you broke your heart upon
Dispassionate as in a grave.

You rise to face the sun and toss
The pleasure of it from your eyes;
Now will you think of dawns across
Your mouth, sweet with other skies.

You feel your thin blood pulsing where
It moves unheatedly as rain,
Content to find the chill breath there.
Cold is easier than pain.