High stakes!
They did naught but
pin me to the sky!
I did more than weather
the storm
I weathered all weather.
She loved me still
with your skin cooked black, she said
she tended to my boils
what a marvel, she said, you're still alive!
my smile bleached white, shone true
all I want... is to be... with you

Lady there's no hell greater than loss
but you've promised me eternity
laud all your passion and virtue
for there is no end to your grace!
You're the marvel, she said, you've been cooked
black
but you still
shine
... inside where emptiness rings I cringe...

Tell me, how white were you
when you
were ****** into the sky
like a kite caught in clouds
tell me! She demands
I smile my sunlit smile
Only the purest color, my dear
the irony of my white lie so clear

She enjoys my moonless tint!
Her tongue swims over my skin
scouting for cacao, or some savor rich
her passion so devouring cools me
for all pain is pleasure
after the fires of perdition
yet, why is there still a nagging
a clawing
a stabbing
a seeping, consuming unease
within my heart?

I must tell her the truth...

My love, she says, how white-
I've been night before there was darkness
I say
I was soot before there was flame
I say
I was the skin of emptiness before you became my soul
woman, I've always been black even before the cooking,
but
my heart is a pool of light, within which
you may bathe...

She stared at me,
finally seeing the filth
her heart knew to deny.
I should have been
a fountain of tears
but the flames of hell have robbed me
of any admission of sorrow.

All I wish in days gone by
is
I wish she had a heart of gold
and
if color be the weight of any being
may sight be struck from purpose!