Nameless

Might I but say your name aloud?

I tremble to think I might take it in vain,

Or that the vulgar, commonplace might crowd

The purity of the thought wherein it dwells.

Or, if in giving speech to the dream

It might, as wishes, swell

And burst, if uttered first, before the candles blown.

And so, ineffable, I retain them

Unspoken,

Only to scrawl them on my heart—

The consonants alone.

-jenn long