peril is not what i fear, i fear your death at such a scintilla of contentment how can i love you for such distorted exaltation, if it is love at all she has sunned only her heart, a weathered inamorata of gangrenous pallor timid and stark naked in the swirling moonlight, blood viscous and ripe to drink, she speaks at last: i cannot be your lover. in retrospect, the affair was a whim; lithe but so bitter love is not divine will, but tenacious valor as i have learned as anything