ROMANCE IN FRAGMENTS
Shade the beast within—
adorn yourself
with runes,
ancient,
aligned.
Making love with half your body;
sweat creases the cotton
into silk,
into silvered silk.
Intimacy refines its toxins;
shoulders widen beneath tenderness,
bending,
bonding.
Again you wound yourself
for too little return,
too fragile
to forget.
Cold air envelops us;
the flat breathing scents around you—
faint,
fading.
Anonymous favorites linger,
corrupting the air;
even silence stutters,
stalls,
sighs
and settles.
Through the morning window:
blackbirds,
one-winged,
flying in pairs,
leaning,
lifting.
First light crosses the ceiling—
an apostrophe of gold,
a promise,
a pulse,
a prayer of dawn.
Chains of the Rosary clatter across Eden,
a swarm of idols—
thus martyrs are born.