You Cannot Have My Misery

You can press your fingers into my flesh
And savor my formidable flavors.

You can flatter me with luxuriant whispers

And share the yield of your body.

You can have my immense attentions
And even a glimpse of my fear

But you cannot have my misery.

It is a dark globe, an obsidian sphere

Where pantomime prevails
And I am masked by elaborate multitudes,

A hieroglyph of manicured faces
That offer no hints of distress.

I cannot share it,

This great shiftless cloud that chokes

The mouth of heaven.

It is the inviolate part of me,

An exclusive domain,

And I will not temper its imperial range.

You can have my gentle permission
To be loved and held at last.

You can have me at your side through the days
With all that comes with it
But you cannot have my misery.