oh, i could lay down
against her bedroom door
and never wake
though the twisted river
of my mind is coursing
still rapt by summer’s fury
brought to a boil

and the sympathies she shared
all fold and duplicate
with the endless molten morning
and her second storey
glowing like damascus steel

i go to sleep with a smile
that isn’t mine

you left your blueish dress
twisted by the pool’s edge
like a cold monument
to every single misstep
and my heart is overwhelmed
with visions of a dancing grave

via crucis in the morning
carry me to our palisade
while these tiny arcs of light
leave my eyes, breaking easily
and your voice keeps me awake
i believe that i need this

you were wrong
i am nothing
but one more familiar face
amid the pageantry

gold and silver rain is falling
in a cavalcade of mercy
and dusk’s writhing shape
calls out to me once more

dearest, i swear i saw you
so undivided
and fluttering like salomé
for blood or drink
or blades of grass
we concede to a sweet dream
while your warm breath changes
to a sabre in my memory

one last emerald night
at bonnechere park
thin moon piercing through
glass pendants of a weeping tree
the truth is
i still hide your name  
inside my lips like stolen bread

beneath our lucky stars
i found the ending
i was searching for
—to kiss the sand on basin lake
while the serrated cold of water
and my heartbeats
slowly dissipate

love, you sensed the rain
before it fell
like another easy beast
into the arms of sleep
and i half-believed
that bleeding was a virtue
at the lake of mirrors

i tried, i tried
to forget the murky colours
of your waning moon
dancing freely on the water
as if i had a reason
to sleep and lie
in light of all these folded blades
still pacing in the drain

oh god, you were right
to say that nothing happens
when we die
just as the lights burned out
and our woven hands
were drowned in cimmerian dark
i am scared that i will go
without a sound
and ever haunted
by the souls i keep
in the centre of my heart