
Marble bed (drawing)

Marble bed (notebook)
Cool stone,
somehow able to stay that
significant bit cooler than
the air temperature of the room.
Finally I was able to cool down
and sleep
my back and shoulders
wetting the floor
where they touched the surface
limbs outstretched
against the stone
cooling the blood to deliver
to the rest of the body
exposed
to the burning black air of midnight.
Pulse slowed to a throb.
Blood at skin surface
depositing heat to the marble
and feeling it dissipate across the room
out to the four corners
to the walls
away from me-
from me,
my heat, within the floor now.
Each chip of marble
cooler than the concrete around it.
The skin of my back, my legs,
my arms
mirroring its pattern in temperature
cooler islands of jagged-edged shapes
surrounded by warmer rivers.
I wondered
if I rolled onto my front
and someone passed an infra-red
scanner over me
would they see the exact same
pattern as the floor
imprinted in my skin temperature?
Cooler islands of jagged-edged flesh
surrounded by warmer rivers of skin?
I inhaled slow and
exhaled cooled blood into
every capillary.
Lying on the marble floor
marble cool on my skin.