1945
when the word flits off their tongue
a b u s i v e
it will taste like 3 days gone sour
like the lick of a catch before sacrificial slaughter you will caress
it and bury it in the backyard
you will let their lips cradle your neck like a baby while the ship slips under
slowly, willing
they
laugh you off like an old acquaintance
burn curses into you
make you pay sorry as toll tax till the end of time how could you have been
so
destructive my sweet nymph
my eternal beam of light they will laugh you off as a lying child tried like a old witch
your last lover, the one before she
the one you still choke on every time you purge your body
clean of the sin of nutrition
tells you that you and them were not inherently bad
but together an abuser's tale
do substances take responsibility for the damage they
cause together?
did the two uranium nuclei know they would call their honeymoon hiroshima
how atomic the love must have been
and oh, baby
how so catastrophic
the consequence.