Among the Living

I've become
  a creature of solitude
attended by silence
  an ember
I wallow in alone


until


I remember


Pain and fatigue are not all
  this body has felt


and 
  then


there is the 
  lingering lifetime slide
    of lips across lips
the shadow 
  of a caress
a stealthy tangle
  of hair in hand
exposing
  a still
    thundering pulse here.