for Mark, on our wedding day*

I.

beneath trembling constellations,
your eyes reflect orion
and i realize--
the ink of night has drawn us into
wick and flame.

fragile orchids bow at the shell of your ear,
my lips in their wake,
whispering of light and shadow and love,
violent and fierce and
angelic.

my face is pale against the wind.
your bones have all but disappeared.

II.

you are as coal and ember,
fugitive in my fireplace,
dancing songs upon my cold skin
with dark fingers,
laced into the atoms of night.

the votive flame waltzes
in its mirror of wax,
our vigil;

tremulous as the first breath of midnight,
steady as the whispers of ivory
that dust the unbroken canyon
glittering under the full moon.

III.

your name breaks open
shattering over stones like starlight--

the resonance echoes
in the spaces blurred by darkness

and i am lulled to sleep,
to shelter.