It always happens
with the sunset for him;
marital love
at sixes and nines

Memories are now
missing parasols;
canticles of bliss
--emotional screening devices

Chimneys smoke
as a way of laying claim to serendipity;
it's a marriage of conveyance

And their daughters lie in empty fields;
early to the party,
seeking the sun
like a lover

Across his chin
sit scars of the crusade
--the first pain to linger,
the last kiss to haunt

The evocation of his betrothed:
mending her gown
and how she wore the forest
on their wedding day,
but peeled it all off
at his request
that one singular evening

To be naked and shiver;
to be naked and shiver
at the anticipation in his arms

The master of the house
now enters the secret chamber;
and in the throes
of glory-light, he adores
his wife in the carnal means
she likes best