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.